Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. The ANC areas are up for review next year. Many of the farmers in these areas, particularly those with marginal land, will be hoping they will get a bit extra out of it. When will the criteria be set for this?

Some farmers are ineligible for the young farmer scheme because they have been farming for too long but are underage. I accept the Department's point about how it breaches the EU guidelines. Is there an opportunity to develop a solution to this? It only involves a small cohort of farmers. Naturally, they feel aggrieved they have been left out and nothing has been done.

In Sligo and Leitrim, there are many investors buying up land to plant it with forestry. The fact a non-farmer can get the same level of forestry grant as a farmer has caused many problems as local farmers cannot compete when buying land. It used to be the case the active farmer got a higher level of grant than the non-farmer. Is there any scope to revert back to that system again? The level of tax-free income a person can make from forestry is limitless. Is there any possibility of reviewing that? I accept the whole afforestation drive is to reduce CO2 emissions. However, small farmers, particularly in my community, have seen this become a gravy train for wealthy people to make much money at their expense. It is an issue which needs to be examined.

Due to the recent wet weather, there is a possibility of a fodder crisis later in the year in some parts of the country. That also relates to the slurry-spreading problem we have. Farmers, certainly in the west, could not spread slurry anytime between July and September because of the wet conditions on the land. However, the weather has been good this October but they were not allowed to spread slurry. Farming by calendar rather than conditions on the ground is not working. Is there any possibility of addressing this?

The fodder crisis would be greatly alleviated if there were a drainage scheme in place for farmers on marginal land. The last time a grant aid for a drainage and reclamation scheme was back in the 1970s. There is nothing for it now. For example, one can get a grant of over €3,000 per hectare to establish forestry. If even half that amount was available for land drainage, many farmers would feel they had the opportunity to work their land better and appropriately.

There seem to be little supports for the equine sector. I am sure I am not the only Member who has got e-mails from various groups, such as Connemara Pony Breeders Society, and other sectors, who feel they get little or no support for marketing, breeding and so forth. While some of these may be niche industries, they could be developed with more support.

The mushroom and poultry industries rely considerably on heat. North of the Border there is a grant scheme in place for farmers to use woodchip boilers rather than oil or other fossil fuels. This scheme is partly funded through Europe but we do not have it here. Our mushroom and poultry farmers are competing with farmers north of the Border who can produce at a much keener price because their input cost is lower because of that scheme. Is there any possibility of looking at a similar scheme for here?