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Agriculture Schemes Expenditure

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 December 2012

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Ceisteanna (2)

Martin Ferris

Ceist:

2. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the impact of budgetary cuts on farm programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56052/12]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (3 píosaí cainte)

As this is a fairly broad question, I will address the issues that might be most pertinent. There has been some criticism since the announcement of the budget that we have targeted certain schemes unfairly and I want to give the Deputy the rationale for why we did what we did. I will deal with the beef sector first.

For the past five years we have had a suckler cow welfare scheme which has been a popular and extremely good scheme. It has significantly improved the welfare standards within the suckler herd and it has provided very valuable data around breeding programmes and fertility within herds to Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF, which is very useful for planning for the future, breeding programmes and so on. That was a five year scheme and this is the fifth year of it. It has come to an end. I had signalled that I would not be able to continue the suckler cow welfare scheme indefinitely into the future because we do not have the money to do it and it has come to the end of its five year term. I would have had to have put a new scheme in place and get approval from Brussels for that. Instead we decided to put in place a smaller, more targeted scheme to replace the suckler scheme for the moment, which will cost us approximately €10 million a year and which will pay farmers €20 rather than €40 an animal. We are asking them to continue to supply the kind of data on breeding and fertility they previously would have been providing to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, ICBF. We are asking new entrants also to provide that data for that money.

It is important to say in terms of the beef sector, because it is misunderstood, that next year we will spend almost as much on the beef sector as we spent this year. This year we will spend €25 million on the suckler cow welfare scheme in addition to approximately €2 million connected to beef discussion groups which started half way through the year. Next year we will spend €10 million on this new scheme. We will spend €10 million on the existing suckler cow welfare scheme where the payments will be paid next year in respect of calves that were born in the second half of the year, and we will spend €5 million on beef discussion groups on this sector next year. That is €25 million that will be spent on suckler beef next year which is not a significant difference from what was spent on that sector this year, although I accept the make-up and design of those payments are different. I will address one or two of the other sectors related to the sheep sector and DAS payments when I get an opportunity to do so later.

I thank the Minister for his reply. He is aware that farm incomes have fallen by 22% up to November of this year. That is an average payment of approximately €18,000 which is well below the industrial wage. I am sure he is also aware of the plight of the weaker farmer, which includes farmers in the suckler welfare scheme, those on previous REP schemes and so forth, and the fact that such schemes were instrumental to the viability of that type of farming. Notwithstanding the tremendous work regarding the provision of data and so forth, the suckler scheme has had a huge impact on the quality of calves being born and in terms of the finished product, and everybody benefited as a result.

It is not the remit of the Minister's Department, but the farm assist scheme has been cut by approximately €8 million. The farmers in that scheme are the most marginal and they are struggling to survive and care for their families. These cuts will have a detrimental effect on that type of farming in particular because one will find that the farmers in the suckler welfare scheme and some people involved in sheep farming are also dependent on farm assist. While the Minister might try to make up that loss another way, perhaps by compensating for the situation in regard the suckler welfare scheme, the farm assist being cut as well will make it almost impossible for these type of farmers to survive.

There is a genuine concern about ensuring that farmers on relatively small farms in very disadvantaged areas are provided with enough support to keep them on the land. That is the reason, in terms of the savings we must make in the disadvantaged areas scheme, we have excluded farmers in mountainous regions from any of those savings to ensure nobody farming in a mountainous area - that is 32,000 out of the 100,000 - will face any reduction in their incomes. Regarding the low land disadvantaged area farmers, instead of reducing the rate for everybody, we have reduced the eligible hectarage for people to again protect smaller farmers. In other words, instead of claiming the payment on 34 hectares as a maximum it will be claimed on 30 hectares as a maximum. I have tried to prioritise the most disadvantaged farmers, that is, the people on the mountains and the smaller farmers within the disadvantaged areas scheme, DAS, in lowland areas. A total of 73% of people in disadvantaged areas will be unaffected by the reductions and the remainder will see a reduction of an average of about 11% but those decisions were made to protect those with holdings and the most disadvantaged people within DAS areas. The same applies to the suckler scheme. Those who apply for the new suckler scheme in terms of the data transfer scheme will automatically get €20 per cow for the first 20 cows.

The average size of a suckler herd is 16 cows while the average size of a suckler herd in the suckler cow welfare scheme is 18 cows. We are trying to prioritise smaller farmers. If we have moneys left over after that, then we will give it to the farmers who have more than 20 cows. I believe there will be some money left over to give top-up payments to farmers with 30 to 40 suckler cows.

This was the third year of the three-year sheep grasslands scheme. We have decided to continue with the scheme, which will be paid for by unspent moneys under pillar 1. While we have reduced the cost of it from €18 million to €14 million, we have made up for that by introducing a discussion group, similar to the ones that have worked so well for the dairy sector, which will bring farmers together to discuss how they can improve their businesses and make more money in the marketplace. We will spend €3 million on these discussion groups next year. The total spend on the sheep sector next year will be more or less the same as this year's. I have worked hard to achieve this, as I see the sheep sector as a vulnerable area.

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