Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

People will always welcome a scheme that will improve profitability in the suckler herd, because most suckler beef farmers are losing money at present.

The aim of this scheme is to achieve in six years in the suckler beef industry what has taken 20 years in the dairy industry, with a much older cohort of farmers. Farmers who are less open to change now have to face far more challenges. I do not think this is feasible. We are trying to put a square peg into a round hole. I echo what Deputy Connaughton said in that the issue of trust is massive. Farmers have already been hit badly in respect of land eligibility clawbacks. That has left a bad taste in their mouths. We are tying farmers into a six-year scheme, a scheme under which the ICBF cannot guarantee the star rating of the cattle involved.

There have been significant inconsistencies in the past five years in respect of inspections by the Department. An as example, let us take land eligibility inspections, whereby one is twice as likely to get a financial penalty from an inspection in County Clare than in County Mayo. Surely there is not that big a difference in farming practices between Clare and Mayo, yet one is twice as likely to get a penalty in County Clare. There is a significant level of mistrust, and Mr. Gleeson has not allayed it. He has not made it his business to go around and explain to farmers in advance of the closing what was involved.

All of us, to one extent or another, have been very badly burned by the housing bubble.

The Department is creating a bubble in the breeding herd through the use of four- and five-star ratings, which inflate the price of stock. These inflated prices are built on quicksand. A four- or five-star bull may end up being a two or three star bull, and while the reverse is also the case, consideration has not been given to the fact that farmers will have to buy into this programme at inflated prices.

I calculate that a substantial amount of money, approximately €8.3 million, will be spent on genotyping alone. On what basis are the witnesses adamant that this programme will deliver for farmers, especially given that payments under the previous beef genomics scheme were late because the Department failed to release them before Christmas? Would the majority of farmers, namely, those with ten or 12 cattle, not be much better off putting another heifer in calf as opposed to tying themselves into this scheme for six years? What measures will be introduced to improve the entire herd? A great deal of learning is available on issues such as getting cattle in calf quicker and better use of grass. This learning should be used to benefit farmers inside and outside the scheme. What specific measures will be introduced in the next five years to achieve this objective for farmers who are inside and outside the scheme? That the majority of farmers with smaller suckler herds are not joining the scheme sends a clear message that the Department has failed to achieve its primary objective for this programme.