Written answers

Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Agriculture Schemes

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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226. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he plans to resume convergence in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59291/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Convergence is a feature of the current CAP and the new CAP proposals intend to continue with this policy. Ireland has supported this element of these proposals. Convergence aims to redistribute and flatten the value of CAP payment entitlements across Ireland and all Member States.

Under the current CAP, some €93million was redistributed from farmers with payment entitlements values above the national average to raise the value of payment entitlement held by farmers that were below the national average. This was implemented in a planned, phased manner over the five years of the Basic Payment Scheme and the steps of the convergence was notified to each farmer. This period of planned convergence ended in 2019 following its successful implementation.

My Department is currently finalising the arrangements for submission of Ireland's CAP strategic plan. In this plan, starting in 2023, convergence of payment entitlements values will continue. This process will see a minimum entitlement unit value of 85% of the average by 2026, carried out in equal steps over four years from 2023 to 2026.

By the time of my appointment in September 2020, there was insufficient time to put in place the IT infrastructure to allow for convergence to continue for 2021.

It has been critical to devote all available resources this year to ensure we have the correct operational infrastructure in place to finalise our CAP Strategic Plan, including the rate of convergence, and have it in place to ensure farmers will be able to draw down all payments in 2023. I am committed to delivering CAP Strategic Plan that is fair and farmer-friendly. I believe that the CAP Strategic Plan (2023 to 2027), including the rate of convergence, will be one that will deliver for Irish farm families.

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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227. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the allocation to offset the additional cost to farmers resulting from mandatory EID tagging of cattle is intended to fully or partially offset the cost for those farmers who do not reach the schemes cap; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59292/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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A financial support package of €4.25 million has been secured to offset the additional cost on farmers in the move to mandatory electronic identification of cattle from January 2022 onwards.  The intention is that the scheme will operate over three years (2022 to 2024 inclusive) with the first payments scheduled to take place in quarter four in 2022, expected to be in the region of €2.25 million.

Payments will be calculated on the number of new EID tag sets purchased from 1stJanuary 2022 at a rate of €1 per new EID tag set.  There is a maximum payment of €100 per farmer over the life of the scheme and no application process will be required.  The scheme is proportionally weighted in favour of smaller producers.  For example, a farmer who  purchases 30 new EID tags sets each year will be eligible for a payment of €30 in each of the three years of the scheme.

In this example, the scheme will offset 100% of the additional cost of EID tags for three years. For herds who order in excess of 100 tags per year, the scheme will offset 100% of the cost of EID tag for the first 100 tags purchased.

Farmers can only order annually the number of new tag sets required commensurate to the number of breeding females in the herd.

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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228. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will give favourable consideration to the issues detailed in correspondence concerning the need to improve the conditions of a Department scheme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59312/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The new CAP places a particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming.

Member States are required to strengthen their capacity in gender mainstreaming and in the collection of sex disaggregated data. The SWOT and Needs Analyses exercises prepared as part of the development of Ireland’s new CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) 2023-2027 point to the need to increase opportunities for women in agriculture and business development.

Some 45 submissions on the need to increase supports for women in agriculture were received as part of the public consultation on the proposed draft interventions for the CSP. My Department has engaged extensively with stakeholders and has taken these submissions into consideration, resulting in some new innovative proposals to promote gender equality in the draft CSP.

In addition, to date, some 29 submissions on supports for women in agriculture have been received as part of the current public consultation on the draft Environmental Report on the draft CSP. These submissions will be considered as part of the process to finalise the CSP in advance of the end-of-year deadline. 

Consultation is also continuing via the CAP Consultative Committee and through bilateral engagement with the main representative bodies, including the Women in Agriculture group. 

Measures in the CSP will be complemented by the new stakeholder strategy for the Irish agri-food sector, Food Vision 2030, which recognises the important contribution of women to the sector's long-term sustainability and includes a number of actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels.

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