Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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2492. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there will be any follow on scheme from the beef finisher scheme which was introduced in 2020 as a grant aid scheme to help beef finisher farmers struggling under Covid-19 in view that many of these farmers are still under financial pressure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19149/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The nature of all markets is that the price will fluctuate especially in the case of market disturbance, as has been evidenced during the COVID-19 crisis and also the prolonged uncertainty surrounding Brexit. The Department continuously monitors the market situation for beef and other agri-food commodities, with a view to responding to crisis situations where possible.

A good example of such a response is the €50 million funding provided for the Beef Finishers Payment (BFP) under the COVID-19 temporary state aid framework, The Beef Finishers Payment (BFP) provided support for beef finishing enterprises who were most affected by the market disturbance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020.

The Department and I are working to ensure that business and services to farmers can continue, keeping food and other processing facilities operational, ensuring that payments and commercial activities that are necessary to protect farm incomes can continue. In addition, the Department continues to monitor the broader context and specifically any market impact of COVID-19.

On a wider level, the Department provides a range of financial aids to support beef farm incomes and to support economic and environmental efficiency. The core support for the beef sector under the current RDP is the €300 Million Beef Data and Genomics Programme. In addition to this support, over the last two years, over €200 million of additional supports were made available specifically to the beef sector, including the BEAM and BEEP schemes in 2019 and the Beef Finishers Payment and BEEP-S in 2020. In addition, the Beef Sector Efficiency Pilot with allocation of €45 million has been launched recently.

I also secured €6m to market our suckler beef abroad for the first time.