Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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457. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the possibility of increasing the €10 subsidy cap per ewe under the sheep welfare scheme will be examined in view of the underspend of €5 million in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8645/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Sheep Welfare Scheme was introduced in December 2016 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 of €16 million at a rate of 85% under the first year of the scheme issued in November 2017.  Balancing payments at a rate of 15% will issue in 2018. This 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.