Thursday, 11 May 2017

Written Answers Nos. 214-224

Departmental Websites

Ceisteanna (214)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

214. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the planned portal website for exporters. [22561/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

On April 24th Minister Creed announced the development by the Department of a new dedicated portal website which will bring together in the one location the full range of open markets and products, and the relevant conditions certification in a user-friendly manner for exporters.

Design work for this portal is due to be completed early next week.  Development of the portal will then commence with the website due to go live as soon as possible. In the meantime a wide range of content is also being collated to populate this portal website.

Agricultural Colleges Courses

Ceisteanna (215)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

215. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if Article 50(3) of CAP regulation 1307/2013 stipulates that educational requirements for farmers are optional for member states; if he will consider allowing persons who sit exams for educational courses that qualify young farmers for a green certificate before the end of 2017 to be eligible to apply to the 2017 national reserve and young farmers' scheme before the upcoming May 2017 deadline; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22562/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Article 50(3) of EU Regulation 1307/2013 stipulates that “Members States may define further objective and non-discriminatory eligibility criteria for young farmers applying for the payment for young farmers as regards appropriate skills and/or training requirements”.

With regard to the National Reserve, Article 30(11) of EU Regulation 1307/2013 stipulates that “Member States may establish their own additional objective and non-discriminative eligibility criteria for this category of farmers as regards appropriate skills, experience or education”.

Since the introduction of the Single Payments Scheme in 2005 Ireland has applied a requirement that successful applicants under the National Reserve must have an appropriate agricultural educational qualification. Successful applicants are required to have completed a recognised course of education in agriculture giving rise to an award at FETAC level 6 or its equivalent. This requirement is in place to ensure that National Reserve and Young Farmer Scheme funding is targeted at bona fide young farmers.  Under the 2015 National Reserve and Young Farmer Scheme Ireland introduced increased flexibility in order to maximise the number of eligible applicants into the schemes and  students of agricultural education were included if otherwise eligible. Ireland was required to notify the EU Commission of the additional educational criteria being applied to the schemes in 2015 and the increased flexibility regarding educational criteria did not receive the approval of the EU Commission. Therefore, successful applicants under the 2017 National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme must have completed their agricultural educational qualification by 15th May 2017.

Where an applicant has fully completed all aspects of their course by 15th May but has not yet been verified as successful or received final certification, a Confirmation of Education Form should be submitted with the young farmer’s application. This form is available to download on the Department’s website. The form is to be filled out by a representative of the college to confirm that the applicant has fully completed all aspects of the course by the 15th May 2017.

Decisions in relation to the National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme, including educational qualifications, are made in consultation with the Direct Payments Advisory Committee which includes members of the main farming bodies, and agricultural education and advisory services.

GLAS Data

Ceisteanna (216)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

216. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons who have enrolled to date in GLAS 3 by county; the number between tier 1, 2 and 3 per county; the number of persons per county who have withdrawn from the scheme after being approved, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22563/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

To date 13,689 applications for GLAS 3 out of the total of 13,964 applications submitted have been approved into the Scheme.  There have been 146 withdrawals from GLAS 3 to date. There are approximately 100 applications which are awaiting a GLAS 3 final decision as the applicants also have an active GLAS 1 or 2 application and the applicants need to decide and confirm which Scheme they wish to participate in.  The county breakdown requested by the Deputy is set out in the table.

GLAS 3

County	No of	No of	No of	No of	No of	No of	No of	No of	No of
Name	Applicants	Approved	Applicants	Approved	Applicants	Approved	Applicants	Approved	Approved
		Applicants	Tier 1	Applicants	Tier 2	Applicants	Tier 3	Applicants	Applicants
				Tier 1		Tier 2		Tier 3	Withdrawn
Carlow	129	127	63	62	63	62	3	3	0
Cavan	569	565	171	171	383	381	15	13	6
Clare	844	838	431	430	312	310	101	98	9
Cork	993	972	567	557	347	344	79	71	5
Donegal	1,463	1,443	1,027	1,018	323	320	113	105	17
Dublin	21	20	12	11	8	8	1	1	0
Galway	1,670	1,634	903	893	704	692	63	49	21
Kerry	801	775	542	535	209	206	50	34	4
Kildare	131	123	46	44	72	67	13	12	3
Kilkenny	204	198	99	96	95	92	10	10	3
Laois	250	246	124	124	116	114	10	8	7
Leitrim	548	537	198	196	267	265	83	76	3
Limerick	422	415	178	177	203	201	41	37	5
Longford	342	334	59	58	278	272	5	4	2
Louth	104	103	42	41	56	56	6	6	0
Mayo	1,723	1,700	1,119	1,108	542	535	62	57	14
Meath	287	280	91	88	187	184	9	8	7
Monaghan	372	370	63	63	293	293	16	14	6
Offaly	319	314	170	169	144	142	5	3	3
Roscommon	740	721	201	195	510	501	29	25	8
Sligo	525	514	242	240	230	228	53	46	6
Tipperary	534	522	248	241	259	256	27	25	4
Waterford	130	128	70	69	52	52	8	7	3
Westmeath	301	296	72	71	214	210	15	15	5
Wexford	330	307	163	146	154	151	13	10	4
Wicklow	212	207	118	115	85	85	9	7	1
	13,964	13,689	7,019	6,918	6,106	6,027	839	744	146

GLAS Data

Ceisteanna (217)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

217. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications approved for GLAS 1 and 2; the number of persons approved for GLAS 1 and 2; the number of persons who subsequently withdrew from GLAS 1 and 2 to date in 2017; the number of GLAS 1 and 2 applications deemed ineligible to date in 2017; the number of GLAS 1 and 2 applications currently remaining to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22564/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The information requested by the Deputy is currently being compiled and will be sent directly to the Deputy when available.

GLAS Data

Ceisteanna (218)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

218. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons in receipt of GLAS 1 and GLAS 2 who have received 85% of their total 2016 payment, by county; the number of persons who have passed all payment approval checks and are awaiting their 2016 payment; the number of GLAS recipients who have yet to receive payment by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22565/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the table.

		GLAS 1			GLAS 2
County Name	Number Sent for Payment	Number with PPV Pass	Unpaid	Number Sent for Payment	Number with PPV Pass	Unpaid
Carlow	259	1	19	119	0	9
Cavan	862	2	46	416	3	13
Clare	1,521	1	95	655	16	20
Cork	1,992	4	173	929	15	70
Donegal	1,831	6	116	943	13	55
Dublin	56	0	7	15	0	2
Galway	2,832	3	265	1,186	18	109
Kerry	1,676	4	99	817	16	44
Kildare	225	1	24	73	2	7
Kilkenny	404	1	28	189	6	17
Laois	344	1	26	181	4	12
Leitrim	960	1	63	398	6	16
Limerick	991	2	62	283	6	13
Longford	482	0	35	332	2	15
Louth	130	0	18	75	1	4
Mayo	2,345	14	207	1,175	23	135
Meath	388	1	38	178	5	21
Monaghan	542	0	36	136	2	8
Offaly	450	0	26	254	5	21
Roscommon	1,436	6	93	523	7	24
Sligo	897	1	50	349	5	15
Tipperary	1,040	4	95	466	13	34
Waterford	315	3	46	114	2	16
Westmeath	601	2	49	249	4	11
Wexford	655	8	112	240	1	29
Wicklow	293	3	36	142	3	10
	23,527	69	1,864	10,437	178	730

Agri-Environment Options Scheme Data

Ceisteanna (219)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

219. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons who applied for AEOS and have received their total 2016 payment, by county; the number of persons who have passed all payment approval checks and are awaiting their 2016 payment; the total number of AEOS recipients who have yet to receive payment by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22566/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

AEOS II participants completed their 5-year contracts on 31 December 2016. Under the EU Regulations governing this Scheme and all other area-based payment schemes, a full check, including cross-checks with the Land Parcel Identification System must take place before payment can issue. As all AEOS II participants will be receiving their final payments under the scheme, re-checks on payments made for all scheme years must be completed before final payment can be processed.  All cases cleared for payment are paid on a weekly basis. 

County	Totals	Paid	Awaiting Payment
Carlow	49	43	6
Cavan	244	208	36
Clare	556	484	72
Cork	428	366	62
Donegal	1360	1,190	170
Dublin	9	9	0
Galway	1245	1,081	164
Kerry	568	490	78
Kildare	39	32	7
Kilkenny	109	93	16
Laois	80	59	21
Leitrim	430	381	49
Limerick	224	183	41
Longford	89	74	15
Louth	41	32	9
Mayo	1399	1,262	137
Meath	83	74	9
Monaghan	151	115	36
Offaly	110	96	14
Roscommon	478	428	50
Sligo	335	298	37
Tipperary	245	189	56
Waterford	82	71	11
Westmeath	122	92	30
Wexford	84	57	27
Wicklow	80	67	13
Totals	8640	7,474	1166

Beef Data and Genomics Programme

Ceisteanna (220)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

220. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons participating in the beef data genomics scheme; the number of new farmers who have joined since the scheme reopened; the number of persons who have withdrawn from the scheme who originally had applications approved; the number of applications deemed ineligible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22567/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The information requested by the Deputy is not available at present. This information will be complied and sent separately to the Deputy as soon as it is confirmed.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A

Current Participants in Beef Data and Genomics Programme 2015-2020	23726
Withdrawals from Beef Data and Genomics Programme 2015-2020	5213
Ineligible beef Data and Genomics Programme 2015-2020 applicants	952
Applications received for Beef Data and Genomics Programme 2017-2022	1856

Basic Payment Scheme Data

Ceisteanna (221)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

221. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 282 of 6 April 2017, the reason the full budget allocation was not used up in 2014, 2015 and 2016; the way in which the underspend accruing in each year was dealt with; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22568/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

All applications for aid under both the Single Farm Payment and Basic Payment schemes are required to satisfy a number of eligibility requirements before payment can be made on foot of the application.

In each scheme year, a number of applications for payment fail to meet these requirements and the Department is therefore not in a position to make payment on these applications.

As a result, the total value of payments made in each scheme year may be lower than the total maximum value of payments allowed for in each scheme year.

The ceilings set by the Commission are the maximum payment amount allowable within the scheme for each year.  Where the ceiling has not been utilised in full, these amounts remain available to the member states to pay applicants who subsequently become eligible for payment.

Basic Payment Scheme Data

Ceisteanna (222)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

222. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number and percentage of persons who received payments per hectare under the BPS and greening scheme in 2016 according to levels (details supplied), in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22569/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The information requested is not yet available but is currently being compiled.  The information will be forwarded to the Deputy directly as soon as it is finalised.

Brexit Issues

Ceisteanna (223)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

223. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department or Bord Bia has completed an analysis on the effects of agri-trade here since the Brexit vote in June 2016; and if so, the documents and publication dates concerned. [22570/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

My Department and its agencies have conducted various analyses of the likely impact of Brexit on the agri-food sector, ranging from initial and ongoing internal departmental assessments to published work by Teagasc and Bord Bia.

In the lead-up to last year's referendum my Department conducted a number of internal assessments across a range of sectors in order to establish the nature and scale of the trade with the UK and the likely implications of an exit vote. This will be an ongoing process and since the UK decision to leave the EU, includes  extensive consultation with stakeholders via the Department's Stakeholder Consultative Committee and the All-Island Civic Dialogue process, in respect of which I have hosted four agri-food and fisheries sectoral dialogues.

In terms of published works, Teagasc published a study on 14 April 2016 under the title "Brexit - Potential Implications for the Irish Agri-Food Sector". The study examined four scenarios under which Irish agri-food exports to the UK declined by differing amounts, with exports diverted to other markets at varying discounts, and found that the value of exports could fall by between 1.4% and 8%.  

In January of this year, Bord Bia launched its “Export Performance and Prospects 2016-2017” report, which analysed the performance of the food and drink sector during 2016 and its prospects for 2017. According to its estimates, the underlying weakness and volatility of sterling negatively affected the competitiveness of Irish exports, reducing the value of trade with the UK by a potential €570 million in 2016.  However, this was offset by increased exports to other international and emerging markets such as North America, China and the rest of Asia, and overall, the value of agri food exports increased in 2016.

Brexit Issues

Ceisteanna (224)

Charlie McConalogue

Ceist:

224. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the way UK imports of cheddar cheese in March 2017 totalled some 4,162 tonnes, which was 633 tonnes or 13% less in comparison with the same month in 2016; the discussions he has had with Irish companies and co-ops in this regard; his plans to safeguard producers in this sector from a ripple effect following Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22571/17]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The trade in the cheddar cheese sector, just like with most agri-food products, is subject to numerous variables. These include production costs, tastes and preferences in export and import markets as well as any issues which effect demand and supply, including geo-political stability or exchange rate volatility.

The 4,162mt referred to in the Deputy's question appears to relate to a figure ascribed to UK imports of cheddar for March, published in the media earlier in the year.  It is my understanding that the UK import statistics published were in respect of the month of January and that UK March Trade statistics are not yet published. The UK statistics for January did show that the UK imported 4,162mt of cheddar of which 3,620mt was imported from Ireland.

While any reduction in trade values is a matter of concern, it is not possible to draw clear conclusions from statistics available for a particular month. Nonetheless Irish cheddar cheese exports are dependent to a significant extent on UK markets, and my department is in touch with industry on a regular basis on these and other trade matters.