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

Less favoured and disadvantaged areas were to be replaced under EU regulation by newly designated ANCs from 2018, with eligible areas being designated using a set list of biophysical criteria such as soil drainage, texture and slope. However, as part of legislative amendments at EU level, a proposal was made to extend the 2018 deadline to 2019 on an optional basis. This proposal has been approved at EU level along with a number of other regulatory changes in what is referred to as the "omnibus proposal". My Department has commenced work on this project and relevant technical experts are currently working on analysing the data relating to the new biophysical criteria. In addition to the technical work on the biophysical criteria, the regulation allows for two linked processes designed to enable further targeting of support under the scheme. These processes are referred to as fine-tuning and the identification of areas of specific constraint. These three process are under way in parallel with each other and, once complete, will provide the basis for the identification of eligible areas in the ANC scheme from 2019 onwards. To progress this work, my Department is in ongoing communication with the EU Commission on the accepted parameters and technical aspects of the project. Any change to the ANC scheme on foot of this process will require formal agreement with the EU Commission via an amendment of Ireland's rural development programme for 2014 to 2020.

I am aware of the importance of the ANC scheme, which issues annual payments in excess of €200 million to more than 95,000 farmers. In light of this, I was happy to confirm earlier this year that an addition €25 million has been allocated to the scheme for 2018. Following careful consideration of the options for allocating this money, it was decided to target a higher proportion of the money at those farmers in the categories which are deemed to face higher levels of constraint. This is in keeping with the existing logic of the scheme. Thus the total allocations for each land category being increased as follows:

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

A sum of €13 million will be allocated to the mountain type land category; €9 million will be allocated to the more severely handicapped category, and €3 million will be allocated to the less severely handicapped category. This additional allocation delivers on the commitment in the programme for a partnership Government to increase the funding for the scheme. The required process to amend the rural development programme in agreement with the EU Commission to take account of this new funding is well under way.

See this speech in context