Dáil debates
Thursday, 26 October 2023
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Budget 2024
11:30 am
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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68. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine how his Department will cope with the reduction in its budget announced in budget 2024 and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46954/23]
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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How will the Department cope with the reduction in its budgetary allocation announced in budget 2024?
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My goal for budget 2024 is to support our farm and fishing families in every way possible. The funding I negotiated and secured is in fact an increase in core funding year on year. It will support the sector’s environmental ambition and on-farm sustainability while at the same time supporting farmer incomes and providing vital infrastructure to support the development of our fishing sector and coastal communities.
The 2024 Estimates provide a gross Vote of €1.942 billion for my Department. Despite the removal of Brexit adjustment reserve, BAR, funding, budget 2024 is €295 million higher than the budget available to the Department when I took up the role as Minister. We now have an extra €300 million compared to when I took office. While core funding has increased, the overall reduction in the 2024 allocation compared to the 2023 allocation is due mainly to the cessation of the BAR in 2023. The BAR was a source of exceptional one-off funding and was always going to be such. Its eligibility period was from January 2020 to December 2023. This BAR funding was predominantly expended in the fisheries sector but also supported the genotyping programme and the national beef welfare scheme in 2023, which I have now secured national funding to continue in 2024.
Budget 2024 supports farm families as we implement the targeted supports for farmers provided in the largest ever €10 billion CAP strategic plan. The CAP strategic plan is underpinned by the largest ever increase in national co-funding, which is the largest increase we have ever had moving from one CAP budget to the next.
Measures included in budget 2024 include securing the €200 per cow payment between the two schemes that are in place. I had to replace some Brexit funding because €50 out of that €200 last year was Brexit funding so I had to replace that with national funding. We secured that. This year is the first year in which we ever delivered on that €200 for suckler cows, which was a manifesto commitment of mine at the last general election. The other significant step forward we have taken in this budget is increasing the sheep payment to €20 per ewe. This is a doubling of the payment of last year.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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The budget leads me to think a lot about the recession of 2008 and how this country got back on its feet. Farmers were instrumental in that. Since then, a lot has happened - Brexit, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. We are not spending the corporation tax. I know the budget delivers an allocation that is reduced by 10% for agriculture. It is disgraceful that at a time when all the Government parties want to talk about its surplus and its success, it would slash the budget of the Department that represents the backbone of this country.
It really shows exactly what Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party think of farming families. This Government is turning its back on the 6,000 farming families in my constituency and that will not be forgotten. I welcome the funding for ewes. I called for that nine months ago, although I called for more than has been given. It is shocking that no money was set aside for a dairy exit scheme. The true face of disdain for farmers came in the form of there being no money for an ash dieback scheme, an issue I have raised with the Minister many times, as I will continue to do. This is not a good budget for farmers and this Government should hang its head.
11:40 am
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It is a total misrepresentation to represent the withdrawal of BAR funding as a cut to the agriculture budget. That was always one-off funding over a period of two years. The deadline for the expenditure of that funding is the end of this year. I have worked to ensure every possible avenue to draw down that funding for both the fishing and agriculture sectors was found and to deliver it for farming and fishing families but it was always going to end at the end of this year. There seems to have been an expectation that the BAR would somehow become a permanent fixture into the years ahead but everyone knows that was never going to be the case. It was this Department that spent the biggest piece of BAR funding. We spent as much of it as we possibly could but, when that funding stops, it will no longer be seen in the budget. Our budget is still increasing, however. For the first time ever, I have delivered €200 for suckler farmers in Clare this year. That will be continued next year. I have also doubled the payment for ewes from €10 to €20 for sheep farmers in Clare. Furthermore, every single person in Clare who applied to ACRES this year was accepted. That is this Government's track record of delivery as regards supporting farmers in Clare.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I appreciate the information the Minister has provided but I also want to talk about late payments. Basic income support for sustainability, BISS, payments were a week late and areas of natural constraint, ANC, payments were a month late. The latter were advertised as advance payments but, in fact, came later in the year than their predecessor payments. Farmers are financially drained. An awful lot of farmers in the county will be getting a lot less money than they normally would at this time of year according to Mr. Tom Lane, chair of the IFA in Clare. This has significant implications for farmers and has disproportionately affected them with regard to practical matters such as worming and vaccination payments to vets. It has led to significant constraints on their livelihoods. It should not have happened. Will the Minister ensure it will not happen again next year? Can the payments be brought forward to avoid these kinds of burdens on farmers?
The change to the nitrates derogation has been an abject failure and has resulted in farmers feeling targeted and punished. A number of questions remain in this regard. I will raise two points. The first is that the nitrates statements that all farmers get are not a true representation of where they are. They do not include grazing and slurry agreements. Can these be updated? With regard to reducing herd numbers, many questions remain. This issue will have very significant implications, especially for animal welfare.
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to payments, this is the first year of a new CAP. All these schemes are new and have to be applied to for the first time. That includes what was the basic payments scheme, now the BISS. Back in March, I wrote to every single farmer to inform them of what the payment dates would be this year. All staff in the Department have been working hard to make sure those payment dates were met. This Tuesday past, 90% of farmers had their BISS payments issued to their bank accounts. Last Tuesday, they would have received their ANC payments. Next Tuesday, their eco-scheme payments will issue. The vast majority of farmers in Clare will see their payments increase because, under this CAP, an approach has been taken to convergence that will see farmers in Clare receiving more, on balance, than they would have previously. In addition to that, I have delivered money for schemes in respect of suckler cows and sheep, as I have previously touched on.