John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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577. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of the 78,000 of beef farmers that are finishers. [12720/20]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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578. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way in which small beef farmers will benefit from the recent announcement that €50 million will be allocated to support beef finishing farms in view of the fact many small beef farmers are not finishers. [12721/20]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 577 and 578 together.

The €50 million Beef Exceptional Aid package is targeted towards beef finishers in recognition of the fact that they have borne the most immediate and severe economic impact arising from the market disturbance arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Supporting finishers will have a positive impact on suckling and store buying enterprises, as it will help to maintain the market into which these operators sell, primarily in the autumn. 

In terms of supports specifically for suckler farmers; in addition to the €300 million Beef Data and Genomics Programme, which is the core Rural Development Programme support targeted at suckler farmers, and other supports such as the Areas of Natural Constraint scheme which is very significant to suckler farm incomes, the 2020 Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme - Sucklers (BEEP-S) is targeted specifically at suckler farmers and aims to enhance the operational, economic and environmental efficiency of suckler enterprises.

My Department, having consulted with farming stakeholders, is currently working out the detailed terms and conditions for the scheme, which will be published in due course.

The economic rationale which underpins the scheme will be published in due course in the notification to the EU Commission for inclusion of the measure under the COVID temporary state aid framework.

In 2019 approximately 57,500 farmers sold one or more finished bovine animals for slaughter.