Mr. John Bryan:

As the Deputy will be aware, the cuts to the schemes have impacted heavily on low and medium income farmers. REPS is no longer open, payments under agri-environmental options scheme have decreased and the cost of compliance has increased in respect of the disadvantaged area payments. The suckler welfare scheme, which was very useful in terms of maintaining suckler cow numbers, has also been hit. The changes to these payments have had a significant impact when considered collectively. Funding cuts are hitting vulnerable sectors.

Deputy Dooley asked about Food Harvest 2020. As world demand for food grows, there is increased demand for dairy, beef and pork products. We are on target for dairy and reasonably on target in respect of pork. Further investment could be made in welfare of poultry, however. The two groups about which I am exceptionally concerned, however, are the 65,000 farmers involved in the suckler cow herd and the 29,000 involved in sheep. They are at the tilting point because the cuts have hit them disproportionately. They tend to be on fragmented holdings and smaller farms. There are a large number of them in Deputy Dooley's part of the country but bad land is not confined to one area. They tend to be on more marginal farmers.

One of the positives is that the farming community are net beneficiaries to the tune of €1.7 billion in direct transfers from Brussels, which come into the Irish economy and create a multiplier effect of 4:1, according to Professor Alan Renwick of UCD. That creates activity in the economy. An extra €100 million will come through Pillar 2 direct supports to Ireland from Brussels in 2014 versus 2013. For the Government to take that extra money from Brussels, without adding any extra Exchequer funding, and target it at vulnerable sectors and regions could have a major multiplier effect on jobs and exports and prevent that tipping point from going the wrong way. It will be too late to leave it until 2015, when a review of the CAP will take place, with new schemes and payments accruing in 2016. If action is not taken in 2014 budget we will lose many suckler cows, sheep and jobs, whether in marts or the processing industry, and the overall loss to the economy will be huge.