Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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1042. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when he will issue the crisis grant to pig farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10173/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Applications were invited for this scheme with a closing date for receipt of Wednesday 9th March 2016. These payments have already commenced and a payment of €3,300 is issuing to all eligible pig farmers with the majority of successful applicants having already received it. At this point Ireland is one of the few member states to have fully drawn down the EU payments agreed at last September’s Council of Agriculture Ministers.

This week I am also attending my first meeting of Agriculture Ministers in Brussels where I will be again highlighting current market difficulties in the pig sector. I also took the opportunity to raise them in my bilateral discussions with Commissioner Hogan in Dublin last Thursday, and specifically discussed the timing of re-opening of the APS scheme for pigmeat and the Commission’s efforts to re-open the Russian market for EU pigmeat.