Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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678. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline his plans to assist sheep farmers, in particular, those who farm in hill land areas subject to designation; if he is aware of the specific challenges faced by these farmers; if an application for support was lodged with the European Union by 30 June 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20814/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department currently provides a range of supports to sheep farmers including BPS, GLAS, ANC and TAMS, which make a vital contribution to ensuring the continuing viability of the sheep sector in Ireland. The design of these schemes takes into account the challenges faced by all sheep farmers including those who farm in hill land areas subject to designation.

The new programme for Government commits to the introduction of a scheme for sheep farmers under the Rural Development Programme with a budget of €25 million to be provided in Budget 2017. This commitment recognises the contribution the sheepmeat sector makes to the Irish Agri Food economy.

With regard to the sheep scheme provided for in the programme for Government, my Department has engaged in extensive consultation with farm organisations already. In addition they met two weeks ago with officials of the European Commission to discuss the proposed new scheme in the context of the specific requirements of the Rural Development Programme.

My officials are currently working on the details of the scheme in light of both the consultation with the farming organisations as well as the discussions with the European Commission. The design of the scheme is currently being considered in the context of an animal welfare measure under Article 33 of the Rural Development Regulation and as such all actions or undertakings will have to show a clear connection to improving animal welfare conditions for those flocks within the scheme. A submission will soon be made to the European Commission in this regard.

Any scheme must meet the exacting requirements of the Rural Development Regulations in terms of only compensating farmers for any actions undertaken on the basis of costs incurred or income foregone. Furthermore, in any scheme where farmers must undertake actions, those actions must go beyond the normal standards of husbandry practice before they can be considered as an eligible cost incurred by a farmer.

I am acutely aware of the difficulties involved in sheep farming on all hill type land and I can assure the deputy that much consideration of this particular production system has been taken into account, including meetings with representatives from the farming organisations who include hill farmers among their membership.