Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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It is my great pleasure to welcome my fellow Ulsterman, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to the Chamber and to invite Senator McGreehan to raise her matter.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister. It is great to have the senior Minister with us. As he knows, the sheep sector is important to me. My family are all in the sheep sector and it is how I was born and reared. It is also important to the country, so I am glad we are having this discussion. I hope that what I have asked in the Commencement matter will be answered without prejudice about other parts of the agricultural sector. I would like to know the rationale behind the difference in the direct payment for sheep compared with beef suckler cattle in the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and how the Department will work to support the sheep sector further.

The sheep sector is a vital part of the agri-economy and all rural communities. There are approximately 34,000 sheep farmers. As the Minister knows, County Donegal has the largest number of sheep in the country. In the counties with the most marginal land, hilly land, and the poorest of farmers, one will find farms with a combination of beef suckler cattle and sheep. I want to highlight a specific mathematical discrepancy.Fifteen cattle equals 100 ewes. Fifteen cattle will receive €3,350 while 100 ewes will get €1,200. If sheep farmers were getting the same supports as suckler farmers, it would represent a payment of around €33 per ewe, rather than the €12 per ewe promised. It would be beneficial to get an answer to this question on why a vulnerable sector like the sheep sector does not get the same level of support as the suckler sector, which is also a very vulnerable and valuable sector. The Minister may know that the sheep sector has had a few difficult years, but sheep farming is a love and a way of life. It must be supported to encourage young farmers back into the sector. I grew up in it; it is an industry I understand and I have a deep connection with my sheep. Nothing highlights that more than when the Cooley Mountains were depopulated of sheep due to foot and mouth disease. No person in this Chamber would understand the trauma of that for my community, but the resilience of my community in the Cooley Mountains to restock and come back after those dark days proves my point about the importance of the sheep sector to our economy, culture and heritage.

The average age of farmers is increasing and is currently 56 years in sheep farming. If anyone is familiar with sheep farming, particularly sheep farming on marginal land, they will know that it is time-consuming and labour-intensive. The hours are long and hard with clipping, dipping, dagging and dosing. The time is spent on manual task. I can tell the House first hand that it is difficult. If you have ever tried to turn over a stubborn sheep to check her feet or her udder, you will understand the strength you need. This is not an older person's game. We need youth in the sector and we need to encourage youth into the sector.

I am putting forward a case for the sheep farmers of Ireland for more direct support for their sector and particularly an increase in the payment in the new sheep improvement scheme next year. I acknowledge the new scheme will see farmers getting €12 per ewe rather than the €10 they receive in the present sheep welfare scheme, but a €2 increase is clearly not enough. I also acknowledge that there are other supports coming but we need to protect, support and encourage sheep farmers who are often an afterthought in national policy. With the Minister's background and knowledge of County Donegal and my knowledge of County Louth and the sheep farmers in the Cooley Peninsula, I know we will not allow that to continue.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator McGreehan for putting this issue on the agenda today. It is certainly not the first time she has raised it with me. She has been a very strong advocate for the sheep sector throughout the CAP process and since then as she has been for the agricultural sector and family farms across the board.

The short-term and long-term viability of our beef and sheep farmers is a key priority for me, as it is for the Senator. Having grown up, like her, on a sheep farm in County Donegal, I am acutely aware of the importance of these crucial sectors not only to agriculture but to the wider rural economy. I continue to lead and support the agrifood sector by putting in place appropriate supports for the sector, including through the CAP strategic plan. The next CAP is fair and well-funded and will support our farm families over the course of the decade regardless of their size, system or location. The plan recently approved by Government will provide almost €10 billion to farm families over the next five years to support them to continue to produce world-class, safe and sustainable food as well as supporting them in their important work on meeting our future climate ambitions.

This enhanced climate ambition will be met through a number of measures, including eco-schemes in pillar 1 and a new €1.5 billion flagship environmental scheme, the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and the organic farming scheme in pillar 2. Almost €6 billion will be paid in direct farm payments to farmers with a number of specific supports for the livestock sector under pillar 2. For example, the supports for both suckler and sheep farmers are at higher rates, as the Senator pointed out, than in the current programme and will improve the carbon footprint, genetic merit and animal welfare of our national herd.

In relation to the suckler scheme, an allocation of €260 million has been provided between 2023-2027 for the suckler carbon efficiency programme and €100 million for the same years for the sheep welfare scheme. It must be recognised, however, that both beef and sheep farmers can avail, as the Senator pointed out, of a range of other CAP measures, including areas of natural constraints, ANC, payments, the new environmental scheme and the organic farming scheme.

Another significant support for the beef and sheep sectors is the enhanced support for early-stage producer organisations in the upcoming CAP strategic plan which, in addition to providing administrative and advisory support of up to €33,000 to groups, provides under competition law for collective bargaining on output prices thereby strengthening their position in the supply chain. I have maintained the levels of specific sector supports for both sheep and beef. If we look at 2023 specifically, the budgetary provision from my Department in 2023 is €2.14 billion which is the highest ever level of funding for the Department and represents a €283 million, or a 13%, increase on the previous year. In the coming year, I will introduce a new scheme to continue the beef welfare measures which were previously funded under beef environmental efficiency programme - suckler, BEEP-S. I have also maintained the annual budget for targeted beef and sheep supports of more than €100 million. Beef and sheep farmers will be well placed to benefit from the enhanced supports I have in place this year for fodder aid, as well as a number of other support schemes, including the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and the organics scheme which I mentioned.

In terms of the payment rates under the new rural development programme sheep welfare scheme, the payment rate is being increased from €10 previously to €12. The payment rate per animal is also being increased in the beef data and genomics programme for suckler cows.

I am pleased to be able to maintain the funds. In terms of the sheep sector and throughout the CAP consultation process, the request for additional sheep funding was a very strong theme. I, along with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, delivered an extra 50% in national co-funding for pillar 2 schemes, meaning significantly increased payments for farmers. One still had to make choices and decisions in terms of how one would allocate that and which sectors were most under pressure. I increased that for sheep, although I know sheep farmers would have liked more. What I would say is that as we step out over the next number of years the potential is there to look at that year-on-year to see if we can increase it. It has increased in recent years and I know the sheep sector very much wants to see that happen.

Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I spoke to him previously about a wool council. I reiterate the need to continue those indirect supports. As he well knows, part sheep welfare is that they must be sheared and they must be protected. It is now costing a farmer more to shear their sheep and to look after them in that way than they are getting for their wool. If they are not getting it in a direct payment, it is really important these indirect payments are sufficient to make sure they get all the benefit and that they are supported within their industry. One glaringly obvious support is wool. It is a sustainable, renewable product and we must create the markets and create the space for them to sell it into. Maybe there could be an extra payment, or a small payment, to support the shearing and clipping of sheep in the sheep welfare scheme and an acknowledgement of the work in regard to a wool council.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator again for raising the issue. The sheep welfare scheme has been a popular one among sheep farmers. It is regarded as being straightforward, accessible, practical and very useful in terms of the measures contained in it. The funding has been welcomed. There has been a request for additional funding, for which Senator McGreehan has strongly advocated, over the last couple of years. Thankfully, over the last three to four years sheep prices have been much stronger than they have been in recent years. We need them to be like that all of the time and we need to ensure farmers get a fair return for the work they put in, whether in the Cooley Mountains, in the lowlands or in Donegal.

When the previous CAP programme was launched in 2014, there was no sheep programme in it. This CAP, which I have brought in, has a sheep programme plugged in from the very start at a rate of €12. The fact there was not one there at the start of the last CAP but that it evolved over the course of that CAP programme shows that schemes can evolve and be strengthened over a CAP programme.

I will certainly be looking to see what capacity I have to further improve supports for the sheep sector. If one looks at the last year, the fodder scheme, in particular, was an important scheme to support sheep farmers and sheep farmers very much availed of it. I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this issue today and I look forward to continuing to work with her on how we can support the sector.