Vol. 541 No. 5
202 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the grants which are available to companies in the meat processing sector to upgrade their factories to meet health and safety standards and comply with legislation. [23323/01]
Meat processing companies fall within the ambit of the processing and marketing provisions of the EU guidelines for State aid in the agricultural sector. One provision of the EU guidelines for State aid in the agricultural sector stipulates that aid may only be granted to enterprises that comply fully with minimum standards. Thus, aid for development may be granted to enterprises that comply with existing minimum standards regarding hygiene, animal welfare and the environment.
Under the recently launched national development plan for the food sector, provision has been made to assist capital projects in the livestock sector, including the processing sector. The rate of aid is 40% of approved eligible costs and generally investments exceeding 100,000 or £80,000 will be considered for assistance. Eligible projects will be assessed on a case by case basis.
Possibilities also exist under the NDP for grant aid in the areas of human resource development and marketing and promotion. With regard to human resource development, a national programme to address the needs of the food processing industry will be managed by Enterprise Ireland to cover such areas as food safety and marketing training, competitiveness and improved productivity, management development and innovation management. Measures relating to marketing and promotion will be implemented by An Bord Bia. The objective of this measure is to support the marketing and promotion of food and drinks products by helping in the development of new markets and the expansion of current ones.
