Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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652. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the EU funds allocated to Ireland for the European agriculture guarantee fund in each of the years 2017 to 2020; the amount of unspent funding in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18835/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Please find below the information in relation to Pillar 1 expenditure under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS, Greening Young Farmers Scheme and Protein Aid), for the years 2017 to 2020.  EU Regulation 1307/2013 sets out the maximum ceilings to apply for these payments each year, not a budget.

The following should be noted when comparing the  expenditure column to the ceiling column.  Firstly, not all applicants for BPS fully utilise their allocated entitlements each year.  Secondly, all applicants for aid under the BPS and other schemes are required to satisfy a number of eligibility requirements before payment can be made on foot of the application. In each scheme year, a number of applications for payment fail to meet these requirements and the Department is therefore not permitted to make payment on these applications.

The ceilings set by the Commission are the maximum payment amount allowable within the scheme for each year.  Where the ceiling has not been utilised in full, these amounts remain available to the member states to pay applicants who subsequently become eligible for payment.  Such payments are currently ongoing across all scheme years.

Please note that there has been no expenditure to date under Pillar 1 in relation to the 2020 scheme year.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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653. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the EU funds allocated to Ireland from the European agriculture rural development fund in each of the years 2017 to 2020; the amount of unspent funding in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18836/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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€2,190,589,653 has been allocated to Ireland from the European Agriculture Rural Development Fund for the 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme.  The funding is for the full period of the programme and under the "N+3" rule expenditure up to 2023 is eligible to be claimed  against the 2014-2020 allocation.

While the Rural Development Programme Financial Plan sets out an indicative allocation of approximately €313m for each of the 7 years 2014-2020, where expenditure in a year is less than the indicative allocation the amount available for subsequent years of the programme is increased accordingly. Thus, the extent of unspent EU funds is measured more accurately at the end of the programming period rather than on an annual basis.

As per table 1 below,  expenditure of EAFRD funds in 2017 was €22.4m less than the indicative allocation whereas, in 2018 and in 2019, it exceeded the indicative allocation by €22.7m and €25.9m respectively.  Expenditure in the Jan-June 2020 period is almost €64m of  the full year indicative allocation but the vast majority of the programmed spend will take place in the second half of the year.

Table 1EAFRDfor 2017-2020 €

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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654. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the EU veterinary funding allocated to Ireland in each of the years 2017 to 2020; the amount of unspent funding in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18837/20]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The EU provides co-funding to support member countries undertake disease control and eradication programmes. Ireland receives EU co-funding for veterinary programmes on bovine TB, avian influenza, TSEs and salmonella.

EU co-funding is based on costs incurred for specific programme inputs and is paid a year in arrears. Therefore, funding payable in respect of the 2020 Programme year is not payable until 2021 pending Commission assessment of the results of the 2020 Programme and analysis of costs incurred.