Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1374. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated cost of increasing funding for the beef data genomics programme to allocate an additional €10, €20, €30, €40 and €50 per suckler cow. [38490/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The BDGP is the main support for the suckler sector and provides farmers with some €300 million of funding over the next six years. I will support this programme through the lifetime of the current RDP. However, any increase in the payment under the BDGP would require approval from the EU Commission.

The estimated cost of funding the BDGP to allocate monies per suckler cow as requested are outlined based on current reference number of 545,469 cows in BDGP I and BDGP II is as follows:

€10 = €5,454,690

€20 = €10,909,380

€30 = €16,364,070

€40 = €21,818,760

€50 = € 27,273,450

This would be very difficult in the context of an innovative scheme which has undergone an approval process only recently. Even if such approval was forthcoming, it would require farmers to undertake additional actions to justify any additional payment, making the scheme more complex and compliance more difficult.

On April 13, I announced that the BDGP will be reopened to beef suckler farmers who are not already part of the scheme. This scheme (BDGP II) will provide for six years of payments to farmers for completion of actions which deliver accelerated genetic improvement in the Irish national herd and improvement of its environmental sustainability.

Payment rates and actions for participants in BDGP II will be the same as those in the original scheme, with the exception that the training and carbon navigator actions must be completed by 31^stOctober 2017.