Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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1760. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider overhauling the current grants regime in order that farmers can bank the money they receive year by year and not face recoupments going back up to five years in relation to money that is long spent; if his attention has been drawn to the stress that these recoupments are placing on farmers and the fact that changes to schemes can ensure that a farmer’s payments are withheld if they do not reach targets, as opposed to recouped over many years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63365/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Applicants for multi-annual schemes must be mindful that these involve multiannual commitments, and that the terms and conditions of such schemes make it clear at the outset that failure to meet these commitments can result in the recovery of the payment.

For example, the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP), which will open for applications this spring, is a multi-annual commitment that will run for the duration of the CAP Strategic Plan. The scheme is delivered under Article 70 (Environmental, climate and other management commitments) of Regulation 2021/2115. This article and specifically Article 70 (6) clearly states commitments shall be undertaken for a period of five to seven years. As such, SCEP like its predecessor the Beef Data and Genomic Programme (BDGP), is a multi annual contract rather than an annual scheme.

In designing SCEP, my Department was mindful of the reality of the effects of such multi-annual commitments on the ground and have sought to incorporate as much flexibility as possible in the scheme design of SCEP to facilitate changes that can occur from one year to the next on participating farms, while simultaneously ensuring adherence to Article 70 of Regulation 2021/2115.

Under BDGP, participants were allocated targets at the start of the programme in 2015, based on outputs in the previous year and these targets remained in place for the duration of the programme without the facility to amend them. In some cases participating farmers came to find these targets restrictive as either personal circumstances saw their capacity to farm reduced or they were prevented from diversifying into other farming methods due to continued requirement to meet those targets.

Under SCEP the reference figure will be based on a range of years (2016 - 2021) which it is hoped will result in a more accurate reflection of historical output on the holding. Applicants can then adjust this figure at application stage and on an annual basis, to accommodate any changes or plans they may have, or to reflect circumstances that may be present on their holding. The various annual programme targets that are calculated from the reference figure will be amended in line with the revised figures provided by the applicant. The participant SCEP payment will however be capped by the setting figure at application stage.

This additional flexibility should reduce the number of withdrawals, removals and recoupments from the programme over its five-year duration.