Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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791. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the BEAM scheme is open to farmers that sell their cattle to a feedlot and the cattle are then slaughtered 70 days after leaving the farm; if there are exemptions for farmers supplying cattle to feedlots; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44434/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The object of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) is to provide temporary exceptional adjustment aid to farmers in the beef sector in Ireland subject to the conditions set out in EU Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1132. BEAM is funded by a combination of EU exceptional aid and Exchequer support, provided in light of the difficult circumstances that Irish beef farmers have been facing as a result of market volatility and uncertainty.

Under the scheme, aid will be paid on adult cattle slaughtered between September 24, 2018, and May 12, 2019, at a rate of €100 per animal subject to a maximum of 100 finished animals per herd. Aid will also be paid on suckler cows that calved in 2018, at a rate of €40 per animal subject to a maximum of 40 sucklers per herd.

Where an animal is presented for slaughter by an agent or by a dealer within 30 days of purchase, including those purchased in the mart, payment may issue to the immediate previous herdowner if they are otherwise eligible and a participants in the scheme. There is no dispensation in the scheme for payment on animals sold to feedlots and slaughtered after 70 days to be made to the previous owner.