Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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108. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline the measures he will take to assist sheep farmers in County Galway; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39864/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The sheep sector is an important component of our agriculture sector and the third largest farming sector in Ireland with over 34,000 producers and an output value of over € 230 million in 2014. Sheep farmers in County Galway will continue to benefit under the same wide range of schemes and supports that are available to sheep farmers in other counties in Ireland. Payments under the former Grassland Sheep Scheme with unspent CAP Pillar 1 funds have been taken into account under the new Basic Payments Scheme (BPS). Many sheep farmers will also benefit significantly from the model of convergence to be applied in Ireland where those with a low initial value will see their entitlements increase over a period of time.

Advance payments under the BPS commenced in Ireland on 16 October 2015, which is the earliest that payments can commence under the governing EU Regulations.

The Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 under Pillar 2 of the CAP also contains various schemes that have been designed to support the sheep sector. Many sheep farmers continue to be significant beneficiaries from the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme. The ANC Scheme is worth €195 million annually to some 100,000 farmers and in excess of €1.3 billion over the life time of the RDP. Advance payments under ANCs commenced in Ireland at the end of September. The GLAS scheme in the RDP will also benefit sheep farmers. Access to GLAS is on a tiered basis with those in Tier 1 receiving top priority. These farmers are mainly those with Priority Environmental Assets, which include Natura land and Commonage. Therefore, many sheep farmers will qualify for Tier 1 access to GLAS as a result.

I have made provision for improving efficiency and profitability in sheep production under Knowledge Transfer Groups, which has an overall budget of €100 million. In addition to profitability, the emphasis will be on the key issues of business skills, environmental sustainability and herd health, with increased interaction between individual farmers and facilitators in order to customise information exchange. The experience of the nationally funded Sheep Technology Adoption Programme (STAP), in which 4,000 producers participated and with funding of €3 million in 2015, informed the development of the sheep Knowledge Transfer Groups. STAP was continued for a third and final year in 2015, prior to the commencement of sheep Knowledge Transfer Groups in 2016. The farmer will receive a total payment of €750 per annum for his participation.

Capital investment schemes are being introduced under the TAMS II measure in the RDP, several of which will provide for sheep farmers including grant aided support for sheep housing and both mobile and fixed handling equipment for sheep. Furthermore, an amendment has recently been submitted to the European Commission to specifically include sheep fencing under the TAMS II scheme.

My Department continues to support Sheep Ireland which receives an annual operating grant and infrastructure aid. The funding is given to cover a range of areas including data collection infrastructure, operation of a sheep breeding database, geneticists to design a genetic evaluation system that suits Irish grass based production systems and operation of a ram testing programme. Ongoing investment is required in all these areas, in order to provide reliable evaluations on rams and breeding ewes and to encourage better breeding in the sheep sector.

In addition to these supports it is important for sheep farmers to try and gain the maximum returns from the market, and to date in 2015 the average factory prices are around 2% higher than the amount in 2014. The combination of buoyant prices, steady slaughtering supplies and increased carcass weights mean that the output of the sector is almost 4.5% ahead of last year in terms of economic value. Growth in the sector will come from an increase in consumer demand and export market opportunities as well as from improved technical efficiencies. Therefore my Department continues to search for new markets in cooperation with Bord Bia, Irish Embassies abroad and the meat industry. For example the market in Hong Kong opened for exports of sheepmeat in 2014 and exports of sheepmeat were valued at almost €9 million in 2014.