Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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1157. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of the 2017 sheep welfare budget allocation that was not required; his plans for this unused allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55112/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In December 2016 I introduced the Sheep Welfare Scheme to contribute to  the continuing viability and sustainability of the sheep sector in Ireland. The Scheme is funded through the Rural Development Programme (RDP)  2014 - 2020 and  it complements the range of other RDP supports available to sheep farmers under schemes such as GLAS, TAMS, Knowledge Transfer and the Areas of Natural Constraint scheme. 

Advance payments in the amount of €16 million under the first year of the Sheep Welfare Scheme have already issued. Balancing payments issue in respect of these applications will issue in 2018, which will bring the total for Year 1 of the Scheme to approximately €19m.

The details of the Sheep Welfare Scheme, including the amount of payment to participants, were approved by the European Commission in 2016.  The payment rates are based on the agreed costings underlying the actions to be undertaken in the scheme, and an increase in the funding allocated to existing actions would thus require changes to the actions currently being undertaken by farmers, or the addition of new actions.  Any such changes to the details of the scheme would require the agreement of the European Commission via the formal Rural Development Programme amendment process. 

Year 2 of the Scheme has now been opened and new entrants to the sheep sector can apply for the Scheme at this stage should they wish to do so.