Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. Once again, I want to raise the issue of the forgotten farmers scheme, which closed for applications on 13 August. The scheme was intended to right a long-standing wrong by finally recognising a cohort of farmers who missed out on key supports during a gap between CAP reforms. This scheme was years in the making yet the Department opened applications for only a fortnight in August when many farmers were at their busiest. I have been contacted by constituents who simply did not realise the scheme was open, only to discover that they had missed the deadline.

In 2015, the Department of agriculture identified around 4,000 farmers in this group. By 2023, that number had been revised down to 3,500. When the scheme closed, only 1,254 applications had been received, which means that fewer than half of those identified as eligible got the opportunity to apply. Such a situation cannot be explained away as a lack of interest. It speaks to poor communication, a rushed timeline and a scheme that was, in my opinion, designed to minimise uptake. The truth is that a two-week window in August was never going to work for farmers. At that time, farmers were under pressure, contractors were busy and advisers were on holiday. Many farmers did not even hear about the scheme until it had closed. For a group that had spent years awaiting recognition this was a cruel, short opportunity and now they are being told that it is too late.

I have made representations to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the response has been an emphatic "No". There is also the question of how a sum of €5 million could be divided among 3,000 eligible farmers because it only amounts to €1,660, which does not deliver the promised €5,000 each. It is no wonder then the Department seems to have quietly accepted a much smaller pool of applicants. I wrote to the Minister before the scheme opened and again after it closed to highlight these exact concerns; specifically that the timeframe was too short and the communication from the Department was not adequate. The feedback I have received from farmers across the country is one of deep frustration and a sense that the forgotten farmers have again been swindled out of their entitlements. They feel that the door was closed before they even got a chance to walk through it.

These are the same forgotten farmers who we have talked about for years. I ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to open the scheme or, at the very least, put in place a follow-up measure to ensure that every farmer who meets the criteria gets the payment to which they are entitled.