Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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718. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the proposed sheep scheme as outlined in the programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21367/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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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. Any such scheme must comply with the Rural Development Regulation. The scheme proposed will be additional to existing supports available to sheep farmers under the BPS, GLAS, ANC and TAMS, will make a vital contribution to ensuring the continuing viability of the sheep sector in Ireland.

This commitment is a clear acknowledgement of the contribution the sheepmeat sector makes to the Irish Agri Food economy generating an output value of €320 million in 2015 and supporting 34,000 farm families directly as well as providing several thousand jobs indirectly in rural areas.

As regards the specifics of the scheme design and operation, my Department has engaged in extensive consultation with farm organisations. In addition they met two week s 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 those consultations. The scheme is being proposed as an animal welfare scheme under Article 33 of the Rural Development Regulation and all actions will have to improve animal welfare conditions for flocks within the scheme. Furthermore, schemes payments may be made only on the basis of costs incurred or income foregone as a result of the required actions. Those actions must be verifiable and controllable, and go beyond normal standards of husbandry practice.

My objective is to ensure that the scheme is simple to participate in and to administer, complies with EU requirements and is sufficiently attractive to maximise the number of participants from both lowland and hill farmers sectors.