Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I rise to support the areas of natural constraint, ANC, campaign by the Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association to address the inequality in farm payments. The ANC scheme, which was opened on 6 May 2015, replaced the disadvantaged areas scheme under the rural development programme. It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, which means it is co-funded 54% from Brussels and 46% from the national Exchequer. A total of 95,000 farmers across the State participate in the scheme. A review, including a scientific mapping exercise, is currently taking place and should be completed by the end of June this year. The level of constraint will be determined by the mapping exercise and socioeconomic factors will no longer be taken into account.

I believe the three-point plan advocated by the association is the best way to address the inequality in farm payments dating from the debacle of the single farm payment reference years in 2001 and 2002. The plan advocates the front-loading of payments on the first 20 ha at €250 per hectare and increasing the rate per hectare for the next 14 ha to €179 per hectare and, third, by increasing the overall number of eligible hectares from 34 ha to 40 ha, with €70 per hectare on the remaining 6 ha. The overall budget needs to be increased from the €220 million committed under the programme for Government to €300 million. That can be done from the unspent rural development fund which is estimated over the lifetime of the programme to be approximately €400 million.

The EU auditors have acknowledged that the current method of measuring disadvantage on land has resulted in unequal treatment of farmers. Some farmers were overpaid and others were underpaid relative to the constraint on the farm. The ANC review seeks to remedy that through a scientific method based on eight biophysical contraints. I ask that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, would come to the House to discuss the review. The ANC payment must do what it says on the tin, namely, reflect the level of natural land constraint. Above all, the review must be used to right some of the wrongs done to farm families in the most severely disadvantaged areas.

Before I conclude I wish to signal my solidarity with those on the picket line at Hastings garage in Westport. They are no different from the Bus Éireann strikers or the Tesco strikers. They are now in the fourth week of the strike. I again appeal to Tim Hastings and to Volkswagen Ireland to implement the full terms of the Labour Court recommendations before the SIPTU rally organised for Saturday, 4 March. This is an important struggle for all workers as it concerns fundamental issues such as the right to redundancy entitlements and an employer respecting the State's industrial relations institutions. This is not what Westport, Mayo, the striking workers and their families or any workers need. I urge the Taoiseach to use all the influence he has to bring about a resolution to the dispute as quickly as possible.