Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to give the House some figures on the schemes, because Deputy Ó Cuív raised the issue earlier and sought such data. Payments worth some €154 million under the disadvantaged areas scheme will begin tomorrow, 26 September. This funding will provide a boost to the rural economy and will benefit all areas of the country. It is too early to estimate, at this stage, the total payments to be made under the scheme in 2012, because there is an issue to do with qualification criteria which is working through the system. REPS payments for 2011 are currently up to date. A total of €64 million has been paid out to date and I envisage that by the end of 2012 a further €121 million will have been spent. AEOS payments are well advanced and continue to issue as quickly as possible. To date, €23 million has been paid and a further €34 million will be paid out before the end of 2012.

We are prioritising getting payments out to farmers ahead of schedule and we are currently well ahead of schedule in comparison to last year. I am more than conscious of the pressures that farmers are under. This affects farmers not only in disadvantaged areas but also in places such as east Cork and east Waterford. Farmers who were harvesting spring crops of three tonnes or more per acre last year will be lucky to reach two tonnes per acre this year. There are similar losses for winter crops. There was a significant increase in the amount of land that was put into arable crops this year because last year prices were strong, yields were very strong and it was profitable.

Unfortunately, there has been a significant reduction in yield and quality this year and although approximately 2 million tonnes of grain will be harvested we could do with more than that. As the Deputy is probably aware, this country only produces approximately 50% of its requirements in terms of grain usage so we rely on importing the rest at a high cost at the moment. That is a big problem. In order to try to address the problem we are trying to ease cashflow problems for farmers by supporting schemes at an early stage.

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