Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason only half of the 2016 RDP budget has been spent in the year to 14 November 2016; when outstanding payments will issue to farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37784/16]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My question is to ask the Minister the reason only half of the rural development programme budget for 2016 had been spent by 14 November and when standing payments will be issued to farmers.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The timing of payments under rural development programme, RDP, schemes is governed by EU regulation and while the norm is that payments issue between 1 December and 30 June of the following year for area based schemes, an advance of up to 75% can be made before 1 December with the balance issuing after all inspections have been initiated. For 2015 and 2016, the Commission moved from a 75% advance and allowed member states to pay up to 85%. To comply with regulatory and audit requirements, a full suite of checks must be carried out on all payment claims and this work cannot commence until after 15 May, the closing date for submission of the basic payment scheme application. For many of the rural development programme schemes, 2016 is the first full year of payment and 2016 payments for a number of the schemes are scheduled to issue in December.

The current position for each of the schemes in the RDP in respect of 2016 payments is as follows. For the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme, payments are made annually to some 96,000 farmers. For 2016, the allocation is €202 million, and we are on schedule to pay this full allocation by year end. In 2015, some €207 million was paid under the scheme. Processing of the ANC scheme payments commenced on schedule during the third week in September with almost 65,000 applicants being paid a total of €140.9 million. To date, over 87,000 applicants have been paid a total of €188 million. In addition, over €10 million has been paid this year in respect of the 2015 scheme year. As is normal at this stage of the year, a number of applicants have not yet fulfilled the scheme eligibility requirements regarding stocking density but will do so, hopefully, before the end of the year.

Payments under the beef data and genomics programme are calculated on the basis of the number of calved cows in 2014 and the eligible hectares of forage land declared on the 2014 single payment scheme application. Payments amounting to €44 million have now been made to almost 24,000 farmers of which €29 million was paid to almost 16,000 farmers in December 2015. Payments in respect of 2016 scheme year will commence in December. There is an allocation of some €52 million in 2016 and it is expected to spend that allocation.

Under the RDP, knowledge transfer groups have been set up across six sectors – beef, dairy, sheep, tillage, equine and poultry. These groups will build on the success of the previous discussion groups, with the addition of one-to-one time between farmer and adviser to develop a farm improvement plan, FIP. Each farmer receives €750 per annum per group - €375 in respect of a second group, if a farmer joins two groups.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Each facilitator receives €500 per farmer per annum, an average of €7,500 to €8,500 per group. Almost 20,000 farmers have now been approved in knowledge transfer, KT, groups which began in June 2016. No payments are due to issue until the end of year one, that is, in quarter three of 2017.

The 2016 budgeted allocation for TAMS is €35.8 million. To date 4,965 approvals have issued across the initial four tranches of the TAMS II schemes. Payment is made when the approved works have been completed. Expenditure to 14 November is just under €5 million and payment claims continue to be submitted and approved on an ongoing basis.

The REPS 2016 allocation is €4.2 million and expenditure to 14 November 2016 is €2.5 million. Projected further spend to end of year is €1 million. It is expected that outstanding REPS payments will be made in the first week of December. These will almost exclusively be payments for supplementary measures which are made one year in arrears. The bulk of REPS participants exited the scheme at the end of 2014 with less than 850 remaining in the scheme to the end of 2015.

The agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, 2016 allocation is €38.4 million and expenditure to 14 November is €15.1 million, with a projected further spend of €21 million before year end.

Under the green low carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, over €17 million has issued in respect of the 2015 scheme year. The total active population in GLAS so far is some 37,400 and payments in respect of the 2016 scheme year, the first full year of the scheme, are scheduled to commence before the end of the year. Payment can only issue to participants who pass all the required validations. The total budget for GLAS in 2016 is €142 million and it is expected to spend that allocation.

With regard to the organic farming scheme, the 2016 budget allocation is €12 million and payments to 14 November are valued at €2.6 million, with an expected spend for the full year of €10 million.

In 2016, some €500,000 was voted for the collaborative farming scheme, that is, 200 cases at the maximum of €2,500. To date, €219,000, involving 170 cases, has been paid and it is anticipated that a further €110,000, involving a further 70 cases, will be paid before year end. All amounts claimed were well under the maximum allowable, hence the greater number of cases paid.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response. As the Minister pointed out to me in a response to a parliamentary question I received on 14 November, up until that point in time only 52% of all rural development programme funding for 2016 had been paid out to farmers. The Minister knows as well as I do the enormous pressure that agriculture has been under this year, across nearly all sectors. There are significant cash-flow pressures. It has been a difficult year for dairy and a difficult year for sheep, and an exceptionally difficult year for the tillage sector, and, indeed, for beef. It is unacceptable that expenditure from that budget is backloaded to the end of the year when every effort should be made to bring as much of it forward. This can be done within the rules and regulations under which the Department must operate.

In relation GLAS, the Department has been slow in ensuring that the scheme was up and running so that full-year payments could issue to farmers. However, in relation to the overall budget which is €256 million for 2016, can the Minister give a guarantee that the budget will be spent in full this year and, if not, what will the funding be allocated towards instead?

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I am slow to give guarantees that I cannot stand over, but it is the ambition in the Department to pay every farmer who has entitlement and we have made adequate budgetary provision in that regard. Some of the remainder of my reply dealt with payments under REPS, which is a previous rural development plan, which shows that these schemes do not fit neatly into five-year boxes. Some spill over into the new Rural Development Programme 2015-2020. For example, later in December, it is anticipated that €142 million will be paid out in respect of 37,400 GLAS applicants.

One specific area we have flagged where we have provided substantial funding for approved applicants is under TAMS. The Department recognises, however, that 2016 was a difficult year in respect of on-farm investment and many farmers may have made a prudent decision, because of cash-flow difficulties, not to invest.

That is entirely understandable. However, we have attempted to communicate with all farmers in an effort to encourage drawdown of the funds that we have provided under the budget. I assure Members and farmers that substantial funds are provided for under the rural development programme. There is €601 million for 2017, the highest provision ever. It is our ambition to pay every farmer who has an entitlement, subject to the statutory audits and checks that are part of every scheme.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Minister knows, the rural development programme is an essential part of agricultural income, funding and cashflow for farmers. The Minister indicated that many of the GLAS payments will be made in December. With regard to the beef data genomics programme, as of mid-November just over 50% of the €52 million budget for this year had been paid to farmers. Can the Minister update me on the position and give an assurance on those payments? When will farmers get them? Will the Minister also give an assurance that the budget will be spent this year? The uptake under the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, TAMS, has been smaller this year. In respect of the €256 million budget for the rural development programme overall, it is crucial that what is allocated each year is spent each year. The Minister indicated that, as far as he is concerned, there can be follow-on from one CAP programme to the next. However, under the GLAS scheme there are specific allocations committed to by the Government for the duration of the CAP and also for each year. It is crucial that this is delivered on and that it ends up in farmers' pockets and is not withheld by the Department, particularly considering the enormous income pressures on farmers.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Deputy that the Department has no interest in withholding payment to any farmer, but there are issues regarding eligibility. Under areas of natural constraint, ANC, payments, for example, it may be the case that farmers might meet the eligibility requirements in the latter days of December, and they have the latitude to do that in respect of matters such as stocking density. That is why in 2016 we paid €15 million in ANC payments for 2015. I am sure the Deputy is not suggesting that when somebody meets the criteria for eligibility in the latter days of the year they should not be paid. The scheme does not lend itself to 1 January and 31 December deadlines, so we operate with some latitude at either end.

I will give the figures for the beef data genomics programme. Payments under that programme are calculated on the basis of the number of calved cows in 2014 and eligible hectares of forage land declared under the 2014 single payment application. Payments amounting to €44 million have now been made to almost 24,000 farmers, of which €29 million was paid to almost 16,000 farmers in December 2015. Payments in respect of the 2016 scheme will commence in December. There is an allocation of €52 million and it is expected to spend all of that allocation.