Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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707. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers who availed of the fodder transport subsidy in numerical terms and expressed as a percentage of the overall number of farmers. [30270/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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In response to weather conditions experienced by farmers over a number of months,

my Department put in place a range of supports for farmers facing fodder shortages. The Fodder Transport Scheme was one of these supports, and was introduced  in order to make a financial contribution towards forage transport costs in certain circumstances. 

Under the Fodder Transport Scheme 606 applications were received.  There are some 139,000 farm in Ireland, and approximately 130,000 farms apply to my Department for support under a range of schemes available to them.  The 606 applicants for the Fodder Transport Scheme represent 0.46% of these 130,000 farmers.  Payments under the Scheme are scheduled to commence shortly.