Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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196. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers enrolled in the ANC scheme in 2019; the breakdown by each respective area designation, including mountain type land, more severely handicapped lowland, less severely handicapped lowland and areas of specific constraints islands; the payment rate for each respective area designation; the amount of funding allocated to the scheme in 2019; the allocation made in budget 2020 for the scheme in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42504/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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A total of 119,375 applications were submitted under the 2019 Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme, of which a total of 103,904 currently hold eligible land.  Not all these applicants will be due to receive payments.  For example, many will make on-farm decisions in relation to their stocking rates over the course of the year which will impact on their eligibility for payment.  Some will only become eligible for payment later in the year.

Following the changes to the scheme introduced in the 2019 scheme year, the previous categories of land have been amended as follows.  Mountain type land is now Category 1 land, more severely handicapped land is now Category 2 land, and less severely handicapped land is now Category 3 land. Separately, the island land category remains in place with no change.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of applicants that have declared land under Category 1,2 and 3 and under the Island Farming Scheme. 

Please note that the above table displays a count of all applicants to have declared land in each category.  An applicant may have declared land in more than 1 category and will be included in the total number of applicants under each category of land for which they have declared.

The payment rate for each ANC category is set out in the scheme terms and conditions as follows:

The payment rate for the island category of land are also set out in the scheme terms and conditions as follows: 

I am conscious of the many challenges currently faced by farmers and, with this in mind, in Budget 2019 I secured additional funding of €23 million to bring the overall annual budget for the 2019 ANC scheme up to €250 million.  The allocation for ANC in Budget 2020 is maintained at €250 million.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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197. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers enrolled in the ANC scheme in 2019, by county; the number of farmers by county enrolled in the ANC by each respective area designation; the number of applicants to the scheme in 2019; the number of approved applicants by county who have received their 85% advance payment ; the number of approved applicants who have not received their advance payment; and the number of applicants who were not approved into the scheme. [42505/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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A total of 119,375 applications were submitted under the 2019 Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme, of which a total of 103,904 currently hold eligible land.  Not all applicants who have eligible land will necessarily satisfy all the scheme requirements in order to qualify for a payment. For example, many will make on-farm decisions in relation to their stocking rates over the course of the year which will impact on their eligibility for payment.  Some will only become eligible for payment later in the year.

Payments under the 2019 ANC scheme commenced on schedule during the week commencing 16th September 2019 with 79,000 farmers being paid €168.5 million.  This was an increase of 2,000 farmers compared to the opening of ANC payments in September 2018.  Regular payment runs continue to take place and to date, a total of 86,508 applications have received their 85% advance payment, totalling €185.2m.

Twice weekly payment runs will continue to take place to ensure that, as additional cases become clear, payment will issue as soon as possible. 

The table at the link shows the total number of applications under the scheme for 2019, the number of applications with eligible land, the breakdown of applicants by each area designation and the number who have received their advance payment per county.

Please note that the table displays a count of all applicants to have declared land in each area category.  An applicant may have declared land in more than 1 category and will be included in the total number of applicants under each category of land for which they have declared. 

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