Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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1161. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he plans to introduce a suckler cow scheme with a payment of €200 per suckler cow as he previously called for when in opposition in recent years; if the scheme will be introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51983/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have recently announced the details of the new €9.8 billion CAP 2023 – 2027 budget and have given indicative allocation each intervention in Ireland’s CSP.

The proposed list of interventions has been developed following an extensive period of consultations conducted by my Department over the past two years including engagement with the national CAP Stakeholder Consultative Committee and, most recently, a detailed public consultation that attracted over 1,000 submissions, and an ongoing series of in person, mart meetings over the past few weeks.

It should be noted that funding over the seven-year period 2021-2027 is increased by almost 30%, or €1.2 billion, compared to the 2014-2020 period.

In relation to the suckler scheme, an indicative allocation of €260 million has been provided for the years 2023-2027 for the suckler carbon efficiency programme and details of this measure will be provided in due course. In addition to this specific measure, suckler farmers can avail of a range of other CAP measures including ANC and AECM, and the Organic Farming Schemes. This does not include any potential schemes through the use of exchequer funding.

In 2020, 27,200 beef farmers received payments totalling €46.6 million under the Beef Finishers Payment (BFP), 24,400 farmers received payments totalling €40.4 million under BEEP-S and over 21,000 farmers received payments totalling €37.8 million under BDGP.

I am committed to ensuring support for the beef and suckler sectors. Funding of over €85 million has been provided in the 2022 Budget for targeted supports for the beef sector including BDGP, BEEP-S, and the Dairy Calf Programme. The details are currently being finalised and will be announced in due course.