Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The CAP budget has not yet been agreed. All sorts of things are going on in Europe and the witnesses are here to discuss next year's budget, which is all we can focus on. With regard to the budget and the Croke Park agreement, we do not have to touch the Croke Park agreement in order to make savings in the agricultural budget next year. With regard to the agreed ceiling on staff within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the six non-commercial State agencies, including Bord Bia, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Marine Institute, the National Milk Agency, the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority and Teagasc, there is a proposal to reduce the staffing number from 5,000 by 10% by mid-2014. That amounts to a reduction of 500 staff. Why can we not do that next year? It does not involve redundancy but transferring staff to the Department of Social Protection and the appeals office, where there is a need for additional staff. It can be done. If we take the average salary within the Department and multiply it by 500, I estimate a saving of €20 million to €30 million next year. The Minister can do it in the budget if there is Government agreement to do so.

One cannot take away money from people who do not have it. By taking money from the less well-off farmers, we are causing the industry to stagnate. The argument about active and inactive farmers does not really stand up. How can we classify a farmer in the west or Donegal, who has hill land, as being inactive because his stocking density has been curtailed by the crazy rules in the commonage framework plans set out by the Department of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht? Witnesses are correct in respect of the commonage issue. In discussion at committee, the Minister agreed that the letters would not issue until we had a discussion and input into the matter. The farming organisations should be given the same opportunity of meeting the Minister and his officials and having an input. We can recommend that to the Minister. To ask 20 farmers on a hill, some of whom may not get on with each other, to sit down and get one REPS planner to draw up a plan, to have a minimum and maximum stocking rate and to agree the number of sheep they will farm on the hill is unworkable. The people in the National Parks and Wildlife Service who drew up this plan have no regard for, or understanding of, farming practices. I agree with the comments of Senator Comiskey. The farming organisations, including the IFA and the ICSA, should have an input into this. No letter should issue until the middle of next year, after the whole scheme is revised and an extension is granted to allow farmers to apply for the agri-environment options scheme III.