Written answers

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Budget 2013

Photo of Timmy DooleyTimmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the anticipated impact of all the cuts arising from Budget 2013 on farm income. [55962/12]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The budget for my Department in 2013 was largely determined by the gross expenditure ceilings that were allocated to all Departments under the Government’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework, 2012-2014. The Department’s 2013 Exchequer allocation is €1.25 billion, including €6m capital carry-over from 2012. The original budget reduction envisaged for my Department for 2013 under the expenditure ceiling was €114 million. Through negotiation with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I secured much-needed additional capital funding of €25m, including the carry-over, thus reducing the cut in expenditure from 2012 to 2013 to €89m.

In allocating the available funding, I was determined to minimise the impact of the scale of the reduction so that the most important schemes and programmes were protected to the greatest extent possible. Through re-orientating and re-scheduling payments, I have also managed to fund some new worthwhile programmes while remaining within the financial constraints. In overall terms, the 2013 Estimate for my Department represents a significant Exchequer commitment of support for the agri-food sector and is recognition of the contribution which the sector can make to economic recovery and future growth. My priorities are to:

- Protect the incomes of family farms

- favour small farm holdings in disadvantaged areas

- provide taxation measures to restructure, modernise and promote growth in the agri-food and farming sector

- provide support programmes in line with the targets of Food Harvest 2020, in particular job creation

- support the future of the sector through funding for research and development and through investment in food safety and animal health and welfare controls

- continue a programme of reform within the Department aimed at improving service delivery and reducing costs.

In specific terms, I have:

- minimised reductions in expenditure in the Disadvantaged Areas Schemes while protecting the most disadvantaged from any cut,

- replaced the Suckler Cow Welfare Scheme with a new measure and

- avoided any cut in REPS payments by restructuring payments in 2013 and early 2014.

At the same time, I have provided funding for new producer group activities in the sheep and dairy sectors while the additional funding for capital which I have secured will enable my Department to continue to implement a range of schemes including forestry planting and the schemes for on-farm investment.

I believe that the outlook for the agri-food sector remains very bright and the sector will continue to contribute strongly to national economic recovery. There is a new awareness of the vital economic importance of the sector and a strong recognition that the sector has the fundamental building blocks in place to reach the demanding targets it has set itself in Food Harvest 2020, a blueprint that will contribute hugely to the growth in food and drink exports and to national prosperity. I am confident that the measures introduced in Budget 2013, in a very challenging fiscal environment, will help us to continue on this path towards national recovery.

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