Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the first question from Senator Paul Daly, the issue of leakage came up and was identified in the value for money review, so the increased maintenance payment of 60% now in operation means that most people are opting to stay and there is agreement from the Commission to extend their contract. What I was saying earlier is that we have all the various participants into the one stream, so by the end of this rural development programme, everyone will be coming out. It is 26,000 ha extra rather than 46,000, the aim was 16,000 ha. The budget for the scheme has been increased and extended and it has been a success so that is a good indicator. What I would love to be able to say is that in the next programme we will be able to extend it further but until we know the level of funding that will come through it is impossible to be honestly able to say that. That would be the target.

I would refer back to my first term in the Dáil, 2007-2011, when then Minister of State with responsibility for food and horticulture, former Deputy Trevor Sargent, said that we were at 1% and if we could get to 2% over the next five to ten years, we would have done a really good job. We have done that. I have to acknowledge that he was one of the first people to advocate and champion the value of the organic sector. It can be seen in the figures. There are specific issues as one goes through the report of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the organic farming scheme. Rather than go through them all today, what I propose to do is outline a number of the recommendations that have been agreed and implemented.If Senators wish, I can try and go through some of them. Delays in payments is unfortunately a symptom. I think 75% of all the 1,740 have been paid. GLAS is an overhang, as people may be aware; I have not been paid myself and I have been told that it is an IT issue. There is a dedicated team of officials on the sixth floor of Agriculture House going through these cases one by one to get them through. There are individual issues with organic applications, there are 300-odd left, where they are trying to iron out and pay different partial identifications. It is not in the Department's interest to hold on to anybody's money because they have to explain further down the line to both the European Commission and the Court of Auditors that have targets to hit regarding their payments.

On adopting a flexible approach and front-loading, the question of front-loading was brought to the Commission but the basic principle of cost incurred and income forgone comes into play here. The cost incurred and income forgone varies from hectare to hectare and it was decided not to push any further at this time because it does not seem as though it will be favoured by the Commission.

Senator Mac Lochlainn raised the recommendations in the joint committee's report on the organic farming scheme which have been agreed. The eighth recommendation was agreed that farmers and factories should ensure that organically produced meat is packaged and sold as such to attract a premium price, and not merely sold as an ordinary meat. There are a number of factors behind the problem, with the increase in sheep meat in particular, geography and the unavailablity of processing on the western half of the country. With the availability of reasonable value organic feed and the competitive price that conventional lamb trade makes, this year may be slightly different. In general terms lamb prices have gone up significantly in the most expensive time to feed and farmers take an economic decision and might say that it is not worth their while pursuing it. That is something they might have to check up on.