Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister and his officials for coming. We should not have to be here today.

As the Minister will recall, in March we had a debate in the Dáil during Private Members business to discuss the provision of support for the suckler cow sector. We also put forward a motion to require the Minister to carry out a review of the rural development programme to establish what the spending was and, in particular, what level of underspending there might be. Terms of reference were given to the Minister which we sought to have included as part of the review. The motion was passed by a strong majority in the Dáil. It required the Minister to come back within two months with the findings of a review of the rural development programme and outlined the terms of reference for such a review. The Minister failed to conduct such a review, come back within two months and comply with the terms of reference outlined in the motion, as passed. We were then left with little choice. I asked the committee to require the Minister to attend to assess where we were with the rural development programme and, once and for all, address the issues the motion required him to address but which he had ignored and failed to do. In some ways, I am not surprised because he has been ducking and diving on the issue of the rural development programme. I refer to how the Government has or, as I put it to the Minister in many cases, has not been following up on the commitments and promises made by him and his predecessor as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

We can see it when we look at GLAS. The then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, on the opening of the scheme on 23 February 2015, announced in his press release - it was backed up in all subsequent comments - how a total of €1.4 billion had been allocated over the lifetime of the programme. It allowed for a standard package of up to €5,000 for eligible farmers. In the additional notes at the end of the press release, for editors and those assessing what it was he was promising, the then Minister also indicated how the €1.4 billion had been allocated for GLAS over the lifetime of the programme to 2020. It was very specific. If we look across the agricultural media at the time, whether it was The Farmers Journal , the headline on Agriland, The Farming Independent or the response from the various farming organisations, the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association, INHFA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association, ICSA, or Macra na Feirme, they all welcomed the €1.4 billion the Government was committing to GLAS to be spent up to 2020. The reality has been entirely different. What is clear at this stage is that by 2022, when all current participants in GLAS have worked their way through and completed their five years, less than €1 billion will have been spent. The Minister, Deputy Michael Creed, is here to tell and enlighten us that, in fact, of the €1.4 billion, on which the then Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, was so crystal clear was specifically for the programme up to 2020, which farmers and their representatives accepted in good faith, €400 million was for the REPS and the AEOS. That is what he is telling us in 2018, three and a half years into GLAS.

At no stage did he, the Government or any official in the Department, acting on his behalf, seek to correct the record whenever the agri-media and farming organisations welcomed the fact that the Government had committed to a €1.4 billion spend on GLAS. The Minister has tried to duck and dive on the issue since he was appointed. He has tried to ignore the fact that this promise and commitment were made and that this was the basis on which farmers were operating and what they were expecting. It is now clear that the allocation will be €1 billion. The bad faith shown by the Government in what it promised farmers and the fact that the Minister was bluffing them are being exposed. He was getting headlines at the time and made a promise on which he had no intention of delivering. He has tried to stick to that fallacy up until now. He has tried to sideline it by asking what are we talking about and stating the allocation was only ever going to be €1 billion and that €400 million was for the REPS and the AEOS. That was not said at the time, nor has it been said since then. It is unacceptable that the Government would treat farmers in that way.

When the beef data and genomics programme was published by the previous Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, it was promised that it would facilitate 35,000 farmers and that the spend would be up to €300 million. It was expected that 35,000 farmers would benefit from it. Some 24,500 farmers have signed up to the programme and the Minister declared in his opening statement that he was very satisfied that they had taken it up. It compares to a figure of 50,000 farmers who availed of the previous suckler cow welfare scheme. The previous Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, committed to a figure of 35,000 farmers, or 11,000 more than the number who have signed up to the programme. How on earth did the Minister get his figures so wrong for the level of spending under the beef data and genomics programme and the number of farmers who could be accommodated? Was it that once again he was trying to seek a few headlines to hide his embarrassment about the way in which the Government was failing to cater for the many suckler cow farmers who had previously availed of the suckler cow welfare scheme? Only half of those who availed of the suckler cow welfare scheme are availing of the beef data and genomics programme.

The Minister has indicated that there can be a carry-over of costs from the end of 2020 into the next rural development programme. He has indicated that it could be in of the order of €105 million. Specifically, bearing it mind that it was introduced in three tranches, how many GLAS participants will still be in the scheme post the end of 2020? How much will be carried over into the next rural development programme? I did not see a reference to this in the Minister's opening statement. The bottom line is that the Minister is telling us that the allocation of €4 billion outlined as part of the 2014 to 2020 rural development programme will be fully spent and that there will be no spare money available. He has indicated that there will be an underspend in certain areas but not in others. His bottom line is that there will be no spare money to be taken from the allocation. That exposes the fibs farmers were told about what they could expect under the individual schemes published by the Minister, particularly GLAS and the beef data and genomics programme. They have been let down in terms of what they had been led to expect. The Government has not delivered for them. They are out of pocket in a way they had not expected and the schemes have not delivered the income the Minister promised they would deliver. Unfortunately, that is the bottom line and the reality with which we have to deal. Having tried to avoid this scenario and the fact that he did not come back to us on the motion passed in the Dáil, this is the reality we face. I would like an explanation from him as to why the Government took that approach and why he tried to bluff farmers on what he was going to deliver for them. They have been let down by him and the Government.

I would also like the Minister to indicate how he envisages the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, unfolding. There is a significant underspend. Obviously, it will be weighted towards the final years of the rural development programme. There was not much detail in the Minister's presentation on how he envisaged it working its way out. How can he be so sure at this time that the TAMS element of the rural development programme will be drawn down in full?