Joe Walsh (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1048: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding on-farm grants, such as rates of grant, criteria, thresholds and so on from 1 January 2006. [2394/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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EU state aid approval has been sought from the European Commission for a revised farm waste management scheme to enable farmers meet the additional requirements of the nitrates directive.

The proposed changes include: introduction of a standard grant rate of 60%, with 70% being available in the four zone C counties, for both animal housing and slurry storage — the current standard grant rate for such work is 40%; extension of the maximum income unit ceiling for farmers from 450 to 650 income units, with no upper limit being applied in the case of pig and poultry farmers; increase in the maximum eligible investment from €75,000 to €120,000 per holding; removal of any minimum income requirement from farming from the scheme so all small farmers can participate in the scheme; extension of the scheme to include horses, deer, goats, pigs and poultry and mushroom compost; introduction of a new 40% grant rate for specialised equipment with specific environmental advantages, subject to a maximum eligible investment of €80,000 in the case of decanter centrifuge systems and feeding systems for pigs and €40,000 in the case of specialised slurry spreading tankers and related equipment; increase in the maximum eligible investment for standard mobile equipment from €11,000 to €15,000.

The revised scheme will be introduced as soon as the required EU approval has been received. There are no changes to the conditions of the other general on-farm investment schemes operated by my Department with effect from 1 January 2006, namely, the dairy hygiene scheme, the alternative enterprises scheme and the pig welfare scheme.