Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right in that we worked very hard to draw down all the Brexit funding we possibly could to find avenues where we could bring Brexit funding to both the fisheries and agriculture sectors. That is being stripped out this year and is obviously not available to us any more. A lot of that funding has gone to very good purposes over the course of the past couple of years. It also provided a bit of a challenge in that last year, for example, the delivery of €200 per suckler cow and calf was part funded through the BAR, which is gone as we come into this year. We now have to secure national funding for that, which we did in the budget. Otherwise, across a number of subheads, we are seeing BAR funding not being there this year, which accounts for some of those items where we are seeing reductions.

Marine BAR funding is one of those items. Again, we worked to ensure we could pull every single euro we could to put into infrastructure that would stand and be with us for a generation to come. Normally, the vast majority of piers and harbours throughout the country come under the local authorities. We have six fishery harbour centres, which are owned by the Department of agriculture and are the bigger ones. The rest, a few hundred, are owned by local authorities Previously, they normally shared a pot of approximately €3 million a year. Over the past two years, we have delivered almost €50 million in funding for those piers and harbours. This year, Brexit funding has come to an end. There is some small slipover into the start of the year for completion but it has been used up. Last week, I announced €13 million for those projects that had been approved for BAR funding but did not proceed because they were awaiting foreshore licences, and now have those licences. That is primarily from national funding this year. It was part of the commitment I made that we wanted to see those projects that came forward actually come to fruition and be backed to deliver. It is €13 million that is available for those this year.

On the review of the efficacy of the horse racing sector, how the fund is spent, and a value-for-money review of the way it is spent at present, we have committed to doing that. The tender for that review is under way or is being finalised. It is in the early stages of procurement to get a body that will conduct the review. However, it will not look at the 80:20 split between the horse and greyhound aspect of the horse and greyhound fund. It will look specifically at the way horse racing money is spent to make sure it is being spent in a way that delivers a real bang for our buck.

I covered the beef schemes when I mentioned the fact that we replaced some of the BAR funding with national funding this year, in particular the €200 per suckler cow.