Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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1616. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the potential cost to the Exchequer of reopening the beef data and genomic scheme in 2016. [26361/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) is a part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme and provides Irish suckler farmers with some €300 million of funding over the next 6 years. The BDGP builds on the large investment in data recording and genomics which have been made in recent years and will continue to drive further developments and improvements in this area.

The BDGP has been agreed with the European Commission as part of Ireland’s Rural Development Plan (2014-2020) alongside a number of other schemes. I am conscious of the positive effect that the programme will have on the Irish suckler herd. It will help to improve productivity, profitability and carbon efficiency in the Irish suckler herd. I firmly believe that the scheme will deliver long-term and cumulative positive effects for both suckler farmers participating in the scheme, and farmers who buy the progeny of suckler cows for further finishing. It is a significant contributor to Ireland’s reputation as a producer of sustainable beef.

In relation to any possible reopening of the scheme, this will have to be considered in the context of an assessment of budgetary priorities, the operation of the Rural Development Programme and the potential impact both upon the scheme itself and other schemes. It is not possible at this stage to quantify any potential cost to the exchequer as this would depend on the number of new entrants and the contribution of EU RDP funding towards this cost within the context of the overall RDP budget.