Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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384. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the recommendations of the report on the tillage sector by the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine; the timeframe for the implementation of the recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52775/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Firstly I want to welcome the Report recently published by the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and will be writing directly to the Committee on foot of their report in due course. The Tillage Sector is a very important sector to the agricultural economy, making a vital contribution to both the food and feedstuffs sector and in this connection I want to highlight the actions my Department has undertaken this year to assist this vital sector.

I introduced the Agriculture Cashflow Support Loan Scheme in January of this year and extended it to cover the tillage and horticulture sectors. The banks have advised that all of the €150m available under the scheme has been committed and is in the process of being drawn down. There has been a very positive reaction by farmers, including tillage farmers, to the Scheme, which has proved that significant demand exists for low cost flexible finance. I met with the Chief Executives of the participating banks to discuss this and other access to finance issues relating to the agri-food sector. I have asked the banks to respond positively to the demand that has been demonstrated by reducing interest rates and providing more flexible terms for cash flow loans in the future. The “Agriculture Cashflow Loan Scheme” has provided a template for access to finance schemes, including the recently announced “Brexit Loan Scheme” for SMEs. I announced in the Budget that I have secured funding of €25 million for my Department to facilitate the development of new Brexit response loan schemes during 2018 for farmers, fishermen and food businesses.

As a further support to tillage farmers the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme under TAMS II opened for online applications on the 8 March 2017. The specific areas of investment include Minimum Disturbance Tillage Equipment, Sprayers, Rain Water Harvesting, Grain Storage and Grain dryers.  All applications must be made on-line, either by the farmer or by an adviser authorised to act on his or her behalf.  The second tranche of support under this scheme closed on Friday the 6 October 2017.  There has been a significant level of interest in investments by the tillage sector with a total number of 687 applications now received (including most recent tranche) and 457 approvals have now issued with payments and approvals continuing on an ongoing basis. This Tillage Scheme is the latest of the Targeted Modernisation Schemes (TAMS II) to be launched under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. The Scheme is co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

In addition to these measures on the 26 July 2017 in response to the exceptionally challenging harvest conditions of September 2016 I introduced a Weather Related Crop Loss Support measure to assist farmers who experienced significant yield losses in spring cereal crops. This measure provides for a financial contribution of up to €200 per hectare up to a maximum of 35 hectares per eligible applicant towards the cost of uninsured spring cereals crop losses in excess of 30% by yield.

Particularly hard hit growers who experienced cereal crop losses in excess of 50% will benefit from an additional €100 per hectare, on the same area.