Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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886. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to pursue a suckler cow annual premium, specifically for farmers on the western seaboard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13644/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As part of the budget process for this year, I announced an investment package worth up to €40 million to suckler beef farmers in 2014. Among the measures in the investment package are €23 million for a Beef Genomics Scheme, €10 million for the Beef Data Programme, €5 million for the Beef Technology Adoption Programme and €2 million in residual payment under the Suckler Cow Welfare Scheme. These measures are available to all suckler farmers throughout Ireland.

In addition to these payments, farmers receive an annual Single Farm payment under Pillar I of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and farmers who operate in areas of natural difficulty also receive a Less Favoured Areas payment under Pillar II of the CAP. Many of these farms are located along the western seaboard.

The supports in 2014 will be built upon as part of the Rural Development programme from 2015 onwards in which I am proposing a number of measures of interest to suckler farmers. These include:

- a substantial new agri-environment/climate scheme (GLAS), which will build on the progress made under REPS and AEOS. This will provide for a maximum payment of €5,000 for up to 50,000 farmers, and a further payment of up to €2,000 for a limited number of farmers who take on particularly challenging actions,

- continued strong support for disadvantaged areas (now Areas of Natural Constraint), to the tune of about €195 million per year,

- incentives for on-farm capital investment,

- knowledge transfer and innovation measures, aimed at underpinning farm viability, sustainability and growth through the adoption of best practice and innovative solutions, including the beef sector,

- a beef data and genomics measure worth up to €52 million per year aimed at improving the genetic quality of the beef herd, and

- other supports aimed at collaborative farming, artisan producers, organic farming, etc.

Suckler farmers will be able to apply for any or all of these measures over the lifetime of the programme, as suits their particular enterprise, once the draft RDP has been approved. In keeping with the timelines agreed at EU level, it is intended to submit a draft of the new RDP to the European Commission in the second quarter of 2014. This draft will then form the basis for detailed discussions over a number of months with the European Commission.