I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for accepting this matter on the Adjournment. I raise this matter due to the intolerable situation many farming families are facing because of the failure of the Department of Agriculture to meet its responsibilities with regard to payments under a number of schemes. Those payments are not due for 1994 but for 1993. No other sector of society would tolerate a situation whereby coming towards the end of March it had not received payments for 1993. I cannot understand why the Department of Agriculture, having operated a number of those schemes for a number of years, cannot get its act together and be in a position to make the payments to the farming families.
In excess of 0.5 million payments are organised and made weekly by the Department of Social Welfare; yet farmers cannot get the payments to which they are entitled from the Department of Agriculture. I cannot understand why many of the payments due to farmers have not been made. All of this money is EU funded to some degree and why farmers cannot be paid the money they are owed I just do not understand. No other sector of society would tolerate the way the Irish farmers have been treated.
These payments are owed under the ewe subsidy scheme, the headage payments scheme, the suckler cow scheme, the beef premium scheme, the equine payments scheme and the extensification scheme. This has been one of the most difficult years for farmers for God knows how long because of the extremely bad weather we have had since November, yet farmers have not been paid the grants they badly need to purchase feed for their livestock. I have no doubt that the Cathaoirleach, like me, is inundated with people coming to him asking when those payments will be made.
The ewe subsidy scheme should have been paid long ago for 1993; but, as far as I can establish from the Minister of State's office, no date is set for payment as yet. That is intolerable when farmers have had to purchase feed since last November to keep their stock alive during one of the most difficult years in farming from the point of view of weather and other difficulties that sheep farmers are experiencing from losses. However, they have been left waiting for the ewe premium of approximately £9 or £10 pounds per head. At least that is the rate in Connacht; it may be less in Leinster.
Headage payments are organised by Brussels as a subsidy to farmers in the severely disadvantaged areas of this country — in other words, farmers who cannot make a living from the land in its own right. Those payments have not been made for 1993 as yet. Some farmers have received 60 per cent while others have received nothing. No matter who is contacted in the Department of Agriculture you are told that they are too busy, they are bogged down with files and they are not able to explain why the payments have not been made, particularly to those farmers who have received nothing or only 20 per cent of their entitlement. It is hilarious that what was supposed to be an income subsidy for farmers to be paid in the year it was due — that was the intention behind the scheme — is now three months overdue and there is no sign of payment.
With regard to the suckler cow scheme, I understand that approximately 60 per cent has been paid in most cases. However, that leaves 40 per cent outstanding. Once again there are farmers who have received none of the payments due and I cannot understand why the Department cannot get its act together for the 1993 scheme. It is supposed to have been computerised, the forms are computerised, yet it cannot pay out the money due. As I understand it, these animals were examined before July 1993, yet the payment has not been issued. It is totally unacceptable.
I am sorry the Minister for Agriculture, Deputy J. Walsh, is not here but I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O' Shea, to the House. The Minister for Agriculture should be in a position to answer the questions I am asking as the buck stops on his desk. The beef premium scheme is hilarious.
I am aware of cases in my county where people filled out the forms as drafted by the Department of Agriculture and they put in the dates of birth as requested — 21 months on 1 January 1993. They were turned down because they were told that the animals should be a month older. These people are distinct from those who were put out of the scheme because of errors. These people filled out the forms precisely as demanded by the Department of Agriculture and were told that they could not be paid on two, four or maybe six animals, but got grants for the rest of the animals. They were not put out of the scheme because they were right and the Department was wrong.
I cannot understand — and it defies explanation — how Department officials could be so naive as to allow forms to go out which were totally wrong. There were other people who applied for the ten months of 1992 and put down the animals' age. They applied again in 1993 and were told that they had applied in 1992 with the animals at a certain age and that there was an irregularity with the reapplication. They got a letter from the Department telling them that they were out of the scheme for two years. Can the Minister or any of the Department's officials justify people being deprived when they have made genuine errors? It is the same as saying to somebody that they must work for the next two years without any payment.
This goes back before the time of the Minister of State, back to the naivety of the Ministers who accepted the CAP reform without knowing what they were accepting. The Irish farmers are now stuck with the situation and are paying through the nose because of mistakes by the Minister of the day and his officials who did not know what they were accepting from Brussels and are not now able to implement the scheme. I defy contradiction on that matter.
Some cases cannot be justified. One person had 48 bullocks entered for the scheme, four of which did not have teeth and were turned down. Anyone who knows anything about livestock knows not all animals have their teeth at two years of age, yet these were turned down even though they were over 24 months. That man was deprived of his beef premium payments, not just for 1993 but for 1994 also. Department officials must start to operate the schemes sensibly. If they continue to implement them as at present they will be asking for passports and birth certificates for every animal born in this country. The scheme is collapsing and it must be amended so it can be operated practically.
The equine scheme grants have also not been paid. Documentation must be submitted and the bloodline of the animal sent with the application. Yet only 60 per cent of the grant is paid. Why is the full amount not paid? The documentation has been supplied; 60 per cent of the grant would not have been paid if it had not been. Why has the full payment not been given so people can have the money to which they are entitled?
Last year there was great difficulties with the extensification payments. Forms were issued to the farming community in March 1993, which were withdrawn in April and had to be resubmitted by 1 June. Yet no word has come from the Department of Agriculture as to when those payments will be made to farmers. Farmers had to consult maps and exclude roadways, rivers and rocks from their property, but no word has come. The same position now arises in that maps and other paraphernalia now have to be supplied. Farmers are entitled to know how much they will receive and when they will receive it.
I ask the Minister to say how much money is owed under each scheme and when it will be paid. He will accept my remarks are not directed at the him but refer to the way the scheme operates in practice, which has caused major frustration to me, the people I represent and many other politicians from rural constituencies. The people are entitled to know when they will receive their grants.
