Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the introduction of a scheme for sheep farmers under the rural development programme with a budget of some €25 million to be provided in budget 2017. The commitment is a clear acknowledgement of the contribution the sheepmeat sector makes to the Irish agri-food sector, generating an output value of €320 million in 2015 and supporting some 35,000 farm families directly as well as providing several thousand jobs indirectly in rural areas.

The new sheep scheme proposed for 2017 will be additional to existing supports available to sheep farmers under the basic payment scheme, GLAS, the areas of natural constraint scheme and TAMS, and will make a vital contribution to ensuring the continuing viability of the sheep sector in Ireland. In designing the scheme, I am aware of the different challenges facing sheep farmers in the different areas of sheep farming carried out in Ireland. I believe this scheme will provide a lasting benefit to sheep farming and demonstrates and acknowledges the contribution sheep farming makes to the agri-food sector in this country.

As regards the specifics of the scheme design and operation, my Department has engaged in extensive consultation with farm organisations and has met with officials of the European Commission to discuss the proposed new scheme in the context of the specific requirements of the rural development programme. The scheme is being proposed as an animal welfare scheme under Article 33 of the rural development regulation and all actions will have to improve animal welfare conditions for flocks within the scheme. The proposed scheme has been submitted as part of Ireland's second amendment to its rural development programme and is currently being considered by the European Commission, along with other proposed amendments to the rural development programme. Subject to a successful outcome to these negotiations, I am hopeful we will be in a position to launch the scheme in early 2017.

The shape of the scheme will ultimately depend on the terms of the Commission approval and I do not want to prejudge the outcome of that process. However, I can indicate that the proposal presented comes under the animal welfare heading in the rural development regulation, and includes activities that can assist farmers in areas such as lameness control, flystrike control, scanning of pregnant ewes, meal feeding of lambs post weaning, mineral supplementation for lambs and ewes and faecal egg counting for detection of worms and other parasites. I will provide other scheme details as soon as my Department has received Commission clearance.

Scheme payments may be made only on the basis of costs incurred or income foregone as a result of the required actions. Those actions must be verifiable and controllable and go beyond normal standards of husbandry practice before they can be considered as an eligible cost incurred by a farmer and must demonstrate a clear benefit to animal welfare.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

I am also anxious that such a scheme takes into account the different production systems in the Irish national sheep flock and recognises the different challenges facing both lowland flocks and hill flocks. It is my intention that the scheme’s design will maximise the number of participants and deliver tangible benefits to the sheep sector in terms of its impact on on-farm practices.

See this speech in context