Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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48. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the measures his Department has taken to mitigate Covid-19 related delays to the services it provides to the public. [38315/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been able to maintain its services with very few exceptions. This was possible for several reasons, the most important of which is that the Department supports the Agri-Food sector which, itself, is an essential service and had to continue as part of the country’s food supply chain.

Business continuity has been always been important to the Department and all its Divisions are required to have an up to date Business Continuity Plan. The Department’s staff are aware of the critical role they play in the sector and, in the context of the public health restrictions, showed great flexibility in adapting to new working environments. Approximately half of our staff were required to work from their usual locations, such as laboratories, ports, harbours, farms and meat plants as well as some offices which provided access to specialised resources. Appropriate public health measures were put in place for these staff.

As a countrywide organisation, the Department already operated an extensive remote IT infrastructure and this was extended and enhanced to accommodate the move to remote working for the staff who could carry out their duties away from the office. The Department will be reviewing its experience in responding to the pandemic and will use this information to adapt and improve its business continuity planning.

While the work of the sector and the Department was largely able to continue, albeit sometimes in a restricted manner, without the huge impacts felt in other areas, we are aware that no one was unaffected. We acknowledge that our customers and staff are also people who experienced stress and loss and were affected by the health restrictions that were necessary throughout the pandemic. We must recognise also that staff in meat plants continued to work through significant COVID-19 outbreaks and participated in serial testing and Rapid Antigen Testing programmes, due to the very particular circumstances in which Covid-19 affected these environments and that they demonstrated great resilience and dedication in doing so.

Thus, there are no substantial COVID-19-related backlogs in DAFM’s work, however there were a few very limited exceptions. These exceptions included the Food Dudes programme which had to be scaled back to include DEIS schools only, but which was adapted to provide packs of fruit and vegetables to DEIS school children in their homes while schools were closed. Food Dudes and Moo Crew returned to the classrooms after Easter 2021, with the resumption of the opening of schools. Food industry usage of the Prepared Consumer Food Centre, established and funded by my Department, was hampered due to Covid-19 restrictions in 2020. However, the PCF Centre did provide virtual advice sessions for the sector.

However, it is possible that the public health restrictions have resulted in indirect delays. For instance, restrictions in the construction industry may have affected farmers’ structural improvement plans and consequently, delayed their application under the TAMS schemes. As a supportive measure, initially our on-farm inspections were deferred for a brief period. They quickly resumed in line with public health Guidelines, as the Department implemented a suite of new protocols to protect both Farmers and Departmental staff.

The Department was fortunate, as almost all schemes had developed online application systems. However, with Public Offices closed, we were unable to run our Nationwide clinics during the BPS application period, so we developed a new system of telephone/email supports to provide assistance to farmers that had utilised the clinics in previous years. These new measures ensured that applicants were able to lodge their applications on time.

The Department also availed of processing and administrative flexibilities provided by the EU due to COVID-19. This allowed the Department to make all Scheme payments on time and in line with previous years. From September to December 2020, the Department issued in excess of €1.7 billion to farmers which mirrors the performance of previous years.

In addition, the Department provided additional supports to the sector through a number of financial schemes, co-delivered with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment and some sector-specific schemes including the Aid for Private Storage (APS) measure and the €50 million exchequer funded Beef Finisher payment provided in 2020.

The Department continues to monitor all areas and sectors under its remit to identify and address any difficulties that may have arisen due to the pandemic. However, the Department’s main contribution to the country’s recovery will be in ensuring that we continue to deliver our existing services, uninterrupted and to a high standard while, at the same time, planning for a successful future of the agri-food sector. The effects of Brexit will require attention for some time yet, agreement has been reached on a new CAP which will involve implementing many practical changes. The Agri-Food Strategy to 2030 will be the roadmap to Ireland becoming a world leader in Sustainable Food Systems over the next decade.

These are all significant challenges but will form the basis for maintaining the recovery from the pandemic and providing our sectors with sustainable growth.