Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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145. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans for the sheep welfare scheme. [23968/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Sheep Welfare Scheme is an animal welfare scheme which was launched on 16 December 2016 as a four year scheme.  It is part of Ireland's CAP Rural Development Programme which is co-funded by the EU.  The scheme aims to contribute to the overall welfare levels of the Irish sheep flock.

Under this scheme, sheep farmers with breeding ewes can apply for payment based on two actions they choose to undertake from a menu of options appropriate to their flock type (i.e. hill or lowland).

The annual payment is at a rate of €10 per eligible breeding ewe and payment is dependent on successful completion of both selected actions.  The payment rate is based on the agreed costings underlying the actions to be undertaken in the scheme and these costings were agreed with the European Commission in 2016. 

Over the first three years of the scheme, approximately €50 million has been paid to over 21,000 farmers.  The fourth year of the scheme opened on the 1^stFebruary 2020.  Advance payments under year 4 are due to commence in November 2020.

My Department is currently engaged in negotiations at EU level in relation to the development of regulations for the new CAP and also for the transition period between the two CAP programming periods.  Options for any future iterations of the sheep welfare scheme, as well as all other schemes, are currently being examined in the context of these ongoing negotiations.