Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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53. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the scheme with which he intends to replace REP scheme 4. [39671/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The rural environment protection scheme, REPS, 4 came into operation in Ireland in August 2007 and closed to applicants in July 2009. It was one of the measures introduced under the rural development plan 2007 to 2013. There are currently just over 29,000 participants in REPS 4 and their contracts will continue until the expiry of the five year contract period in each case. The final 851 applicants will be exiting the scheme in 2015. The REPS scheme was replaced by the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, in 2010 as part of the rural development plan. AEOS currently has 20,000 active participants. I am pleased to state that the revised Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, for the period 2014 to 2020 gives priority to agri-environment schemes and requires that the new rural development plan must include such a scheme. I fully support this position. These schemes recognise the vital role that farmers play in delivering public goods through the adoption of environmentally friendly farming practices. The Deputy will be able to discover the numbers involved, etc. from the remainder of the formal reply.

Farmers are inquiring with regard to what it is proposed to do regarding the putting in place an environmental scheme for next year. I have considered this matter and am of the view that it would not make sense to introduce another AEO scheme next year because by the time farmers make applications and have them approved, it will be the middle of the year. Six months after that we will be introducing a new rural development programme which will incorporate a much more substantial environmental scheme in any event. Next year will essentially be a bridge year.

I would rather concentrate on getting right the environment scheme we will have as part of the rural development programme, having a proper consultation process to do this and introducing the scheme from the start of 2015, as opposed to introducing some kind of temporary arrangement for next year. That means that farmers coming out of the REPS will see a reduction in their income which would have been made up under REPS 4. However, when they came into it, they knew it was a five year scheme. People were calling for an extension of, or a rollover year for, REPS 4, but if we had done that, it would have been very unfair on people who had come out of REPS 2 and REPS 3 and did not get that extension. We do not propose to do this.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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The importance of REPS 4 and all of these schemes, particularly in the west and areas in which there is more marginal land, has meant the survival of the family farm. The Minister has referred to the environmental schemes and the new scheme he hopes to bring in, but there will be a gap of approximately six or eight months. What will happen to people who will have no scheme payment coming to them during that period? Where does that leave them? Farmers will be out of pocket for that period. That is my reading of it, if I am reading it correctly. A scheme to replace it which would kick in right away would make the difference between people surviving and being able to continue and leaving the industry. Has the Minister taken this into account?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will see those decisions in the upcoming budget. We have to make choices in terms of where we will spend money next year and we will have an opportunity to debate the agriculture budget in the coming weeks. I agree with the Deputy that a REP scheme or an AEO scheme is very important for family farm incomes, not only in the west but also throughout the country. However, the schemes are not about providing income support. Environmental schemes are about paying farmers to do things they otherwise would not do in protecting the environment or to compensate them for loss of income as a result of doing things to protect the environment. That was what the REPS was about. It was a very popular and generous scheme and I would have liked to have continued it and not gone near the AEOS, but we could not afford to do this. The previous Government made the decision to replace the REPS with the AEOS and we continued that policy. However, the question we now need to ask ourselves, as we redesign a new rural development programme for the next six or seven years, is whether it would make sense to introduce a scheme which would probably only last for a six month period and might not even have payments next year as another version of the AEOS when we know that it would be replaced by a more comprehensive approach towards having an environment scheme from the start of 2015. That is why it is very unlikely we will see a replacement scheme for REPS 4 in the immediate future. Instead, we will look for a more comprehensive response in the rural development programme which, as I said, will start from January 2015.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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We are talking about the more dependent section of farming. In last year's budget we saw cuts to the farm assist scheme. Will the Minister encourage the relevant Minister to ensure the cuts to the farm assist scheme are reversed as many people will find themselves out of pocket to quite a substantial degree because of what is coming down the road?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has said some farmers will find themselves out of pocket because of what is coming down the road, but some farmers will see increases in their income because of what is coming down the road. The Deputy should wait to see the full budget before passing judgment. I think there will be some positive news for farmers in the budget, as well as some frustrations, in particular for those coming out of the REPS. It is important to state I do not make the decisions on the farm assist scheme, but, of course, I sit at the Cabinet table. The decisions were made last year because there had been a dramatic increase in the number of applicants for understandable reasons. We had had a particularly difficult 12 month period from the point of view of weather conditions and a certain sector of farming was under a lot of financial pressure for a period of time.

The Department of Social Protection made the changes in eligibility after it decided it had to try to manage that budget. Of course I will have a conversation with my Cabinet colleague on farm assist this year. I do not want to make any promises in this area as it is not my call.