Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation on the rural development programme. I will not go over the ground covered by Deputy Charlie McConalogue. It is clear that the Minister has an allocation of €4 billion that was envisaged to be spent between 2014 and 2020. Doing the sums, I calculate that €3.32 billion will be spent. The sums are accurate and when we consider the individual schemes, there will be a shortfall. The amount is significantly less than the €4 billion that was headlined when the programme was announced.

I will focus on a few schemes, beginning with the sheep welfare scheme. In the previous session we met officials from Meat Industry Ireland and the Department to discuss the issue of sheep tagging. Under the rural development programme a sum of €100 million was allocated for the sheep welfare scheme. The Minister indicated in his presentation that it was envisaged only €80 million of that allocation would be spent. There is, therefore, ample headroom to pay for the tags for sheep farmers up to 2020. The point was made strongly in the previous session that the primary producer was being asked to carry all of the costs of the traceability schemes. They have been told that there will be added benefits for them in the future. The Minister has the opportunity to do something practical for sheep farmers by carrying the cost of the tagging regime up to 2020, after which we could sit down and argue about it again. We cannot say that traceability is bad. I hope it will bring benefits to the sheep sector, but I put that in brackets. All of the costs are being carried by the primary producer. As I said, there is definitely ample headroom under the programme for the Minister to carry the cost of the tagging regime up to 2020. That initiative would be most welcome for the sheep sector and it could be done without great difficulty.

Up to now no money has been spent under the hen harrier scheme. We have been told that the first payments will issue in 2019. In my time in politics I have never seen the value of an asset being taken away in the way it has in the designation of this land. While it is welcome that a scheme has been put in place, we are extremely critical that no money has been paid to date. There are farmers in my constituency who still have not been accepted into the scheme which will be judged on whether it restores the capital value of the land. Unfortunately, it will not do so. While it is welcome, additional funding for it must be put in place to restore the capital value that has been taken from farmers. This issue will not go away. In my time in politics I am not aware of any other decision taken that completely removed the capital value of land from farmers. Such land with the potential to engage in forestry was worth €4,000 to €4,500 an acre.

Owing to the blanket ban on forestry on hen harrier designated land, that land is now virtually worthless. I hope the scheme will bring some recompense, but it is a long way short of restoring the capital value of the land. Farmers are entitled to have its capital value restored and the only way that can be done is through a properly funded scheme, but the €25 million committed in the 2014-20 window will go nowhere near compensating the farmers involved. There is a significant amount of land involved, some of which is in the Minister's constituency. The farmers involved have been seriously discriminated against. The scheme has been promised for a long time. I hope some money will be spent in 2019, but it is not nearly adequate to restore the capital value of the land. That is how the scheme will be measured. If the capital value of the land is restored, we will know that the scheme has been a success; if not, it will have failed to honour the commitments made. I do not see how it will restore the capital value of farmers' assets.

There has to be a speedier way for farmers who have essential work to carry out, whether silage slabs or whatever else, to have their applications processed. We were told that applications would be dealt with speedily, but that is not happening. I know several farmers who urgently needed to get a silage slab down in May after the bad spring and found it impossible to have their applications processed in time to do the work before the first cut silage. The system needs to be improved.

For two years I have had a problem with the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS. Traditionally, farmers purchased equipment through the co-operatives, but they have been deemed to have broken the rules of eligibility for TAMS. That issue has not been sorted out and there are several individuals who are seriously out of pocket because of it. There is no hint of any indiscretion on their part; the co-op did what it always should do and help its supplier members. It never had any problem qualifying for grant aid in the past, but the farmers concerned still have several outstanding issues. The co-op would have financed the purchase of the milk tank for them and they would have repaid the cost over several years through their milk cheques. This system worked well in the past, but, for whatever reason, this time under the criteria they have deemed to be ineligible for the scheme. That issue has not been resolved. I have raised it on numerous occasions with officials and farmers are getting extremely annoyed. They believe they are being victimised again by the small print. I urge the Minister to resolve the issue once and for all because the farmers concerned should have received grant aid for the purchase of milk tanks. A few spoke, too, about running into trouble with the hire purchase of machinery. In my constituency milk tanks are the primary issue. If farmers are involved in lease arrangements for machinery, they should be catered for too. That issue needs to be ironed out.

My colleague has highlighted the underspend with reference to what was advertised at the launch of the scheme. There can be modifications made to the three schemes. There is scope under the sheep welfare scheme to cater for the tagging problem. The hen harrier issue will not go away. The landowners in the areas affected need payments immediately and a scheme that will restore the capital value of their land.