Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2018
475. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the funding provided to Teagasc for the purposes of training young farmers in each of the years 2008 to 2017, inclusive. [6997/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTeagasc training of farmers encompasses a wide variety of activities in terms of formal education courses, on-farm training and the provision of advice through its advisory services. It engages with 60,000 farmers annually, of which approximately 40,000 are contracted clients.
My Department provides Teagasc with a yearly block Grant in Aid subvention to support the delivery of its training, research and advisory services. The distribution of funding between services is an operational matter for Teagasc to determine.
The following table details Grant in Aid allocations from 2008 to 2017.
|
Year |
Allocations |
|
2008 |
€139.964m |
|
2009 |
€131.927m |
|
2010 |
€126.165m |
|
2011 |
€132.156m |
|
2012 |
€128.460m |
|
2013 |
€121.838m |
|
2014 |
€119.210m |
|
2015 |
€121.639m |
|
2016 |
€126.780m |
|
2017 |
€128.130m |
The Grant in aid provision for 2018 has been increased by over €4m to €132.5m.
Teagasc also earn operational income from competitive research programmes, client fees for the provision of research, advisory and training services, EU research funding, farm operations etc.
Its overall operating budget for 2018 is an estimated €203m. Typically, some 40% of the yearly budget is devoted to research with the remainder split half and half between advisory and training services.
