Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will increase the budget for the dairy beef scheme 2024 in light of the number of applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27360/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme opened for applications on 21 March 2024 and closed for applications on 15 May 2024. The acceptance of late applications was facilitated for a 25-calendar day period after the closing date, at the end of which a total of 13,541 applications had been received.

The objective of the scheme is to provide support to dairy farmers to improve the animal health and welfare of the national dairy herd by using better genetic merit beef sires.

There is only one action required under the scheme - applicants will be required to have calves born in the scheme year which must be sired from a genotyped 3 or 4 or 5-star stock bull / AI – the sire must be a minimum of 3 stars on the Dairy Beef Index (DBI) and a minimum 3 stars on the Beef Sub-Index of the DBI.

The scheme is co-funded by the National Exchequer (59.79%) and the EU (40.21%) with a 4-year allocation of €25m under the CAP Strategic Plan, equating to an annual budget of €6.25m covering 312,500 calves per year. A provision for a linear reduction has been included in the scheme terms and conditions.

My Department will continue to monitor eligible calf numbers as the year progresses but preliminary analysis indicates that the number of eligible calves for applicants to the scheme in 2024 is broadly in line with the €6.25m budget allocation as some 3,000 of the applications under the scheme currently have no eligible calves.