Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Whether I get it or not, I am going to take it. I know farmers have written to the Department in recent weeks to withdraw from the scheme, including farmers with whom I have been in contact. I have spoken to Teagasc advisers and they reckon there will be a significant withdrawal. I have spoken to a farmer in partnership with his father who is not from my area but who runs a suckler beef enterprise, with progeny between 21 and 24 months, a 100% spring calving system, sustainable grass-based production, a six-week spring calving rate of 89%, a 90% rate of heifers calving down between 22 and 26 months, a rate of 0.292 calves per cow per year and a calving interval of 380 days, which is 21 days better than the national average. This family are members of the local Teagasc knowledge transfer, KT, discussion group and have been active members long before the beef technology adoption programme, BTAP, and the KT programme started and all those programmes were beneficial to them. They started an increased stocking rate on the advice of Teagasc, they built extra animal housing, they went to the Department and got funded through TAMS and they gained approval for a proposal to proceed to build accommodation for 60 suckler cows. The investment allowed them to increase their herd by about 20 cows to around 100. Increasing herd size is critical for receiving funding from the lending institutions and for the TAMS development. They have a sustainable system. They were struggling financially with the farm and they had merchant's credit which they would have had to carry forward into 2020 due to poor previous financial history. That was unprecedented and the beef crisis has hit their farm, just like many other farms. They applied for the beef exceptional aid measure because this was an exceptional period in their farming careers and the compensation was badly needed to help pay off their creditors. Their major concern was the 5% reduction in organic bovine manure nitrogen- based fertiliser from 30 June 2019. They had been building numbers during this time, as could clearly be seen in the Irish Cattle and Beef Federation, ICBF, reports and the 5% reduction to take place between July 2020 and June 2021 would mean a 20% reduction in their herd because they had been building stock numbers since then and building a sustainable farm system, based on Teagasc advice and funded by the Department through the TAMS. However, now they are being asked to reduce their stock by 5%, which will reverse their farm back to where it was five years ago and leave them with an unsustainable system, as described earlier. They requested that the Department not to impose this reduction and to allow the beef exceptional aid measure to be used for what it was meant to be used, namely, compensating farmers for poor beef prices and helping beef farmers to survive during such a crisis. That case was sent to the Department. This was a partnership of a young man joining his father on the farm business.

The upshot of it is this case was sent to the Department on 24 September and my information is they never received a reply. I would not mind that because I brought this case up in the Dáil but I have just heard confirmation they have since withdrawn from the scheme as they did not want to receive payments when they would have to pay the money back. That is how the glorified BEAM scheme is working. These are two exceptional farmers in a father and son partnership. Can the Minister tell me how good the scheme is for the likes of them? I have checked with two Teagasc advisers today and they expect more people to withdraw from the scheme on this basis. These are knowledgeable Teagasc advisers who have been working hard on the ground to try to improve the lot of farmers. I brought this matter up in the Dáil in October and I knew this would come to pass. I am disappointed that something I brought up in good faith has not even got a hearing, never mind anything else. A suggestion the Minister made to me stuck with me, although he might have only said it to me as an aside, perhaps in the Dáil. He said they could change their system of buying and selling. Mother of God - I will not even address that point. I just want to register the point that this scheme was worthwhile and an excellent scheme in many ways but it has this problem that it does not allow an exception for young farmers who have engaged in a growth phase. Just when they are building up their stock, they are hit and put back again, particularly when they would have given commitments to financial institutions and others during that growth phase.

It is great to see the various schemes being introduced and I welcome the various allocations the Minister has outlined. The final year for a lot of those CAP-backed schemes, such as the BDGP and the GLAS will be 2020. What is planned for farmers for the future? Where does the Minister see things going when these schemes come to an end? I know that will depend on the 2020 CAP reform budget. Does the Minister envisage significant transitional arrangements to keep the show running while those three or four other countries decide whether they will contribute to an increased CAP budget?