Michael Fitzmaurice questions Social Farming Ireland funding and pay
Michael Fitzmaurice questioned the funding, structure and farmer payments of the Social Farming Ireland network during a meeting. He sought clarity on national and county contracts, reported payment figures and urged more cross-departmental funding to expand placements and better compensate farmers.
Leitham Development Company holds a national contract to develop the Social Farming Ireland network and receives €400,000 a year from the Department of Agriculture. Kerry delivers the programme in County Kerry for €100,000 a year, Leitham subcontracts three other local development companies and the scheme is branded nationally as Social Farming Ireland to avoid fragmented local names.
He said there are around 200 farmers involved nationally and about 40 farmers in Kerry. He reported payment figures discussed at the meeting - a figure heard as €1 per person per day and an indication of about €250 a day - and noted that last year roughly €800,000 was paid into farmers' pockets for placements.
Additional payments to farms were described as coming from local development companies, workability programmes, Healthy Ireland, lottery funding and the HSE. A team of six people in Kerry leveraged about €800,000 on top of core funding to support placements and set farms up initially.
Kerry emphasised local delivery - "we look after Kerry" - and currently relies on facilitators and a volunteering principle rather than direct farm payments in-county. Organisers said they do not pay farmers from core running funds and that demand is increasing, putting the project under pressure to recruit facilitators and manage growing interest.
He noted core Department funding covers network administration but not the full cost of farmer payments and said the programme could double placements and increase farmer pay to €1.6 million instead of €800,000 if additional funding came from health, social care, justice and education. He described the opportunity for local development companies to bid again for departmental funding under the next tender round.
Network structure and national contract
Leitham Development Company holds a national contract to develop the Social Farming Ireland network and receives €400,000 a year from the Department of Agriculture. Kerry delivers the programme in County Kerry for €100,000 a year, Leitham subcontracts three other local development companies and the scheme is branded nationally as Social Farming Ireland to avoid fragmented local names.
Payments and placement numbers
He said there are around 200 farmers involved nationally and about 40 farmers in Kerry. He reported payment figures discussed at the meeting - a figure heard as €1 per person per day and an indication of about €250 a day - and noted that last year roughly €800,000 was paid into farmers' pockets for placements.
Funding sources and leveraged funds
Additional payments to farms were described as coming from local development companies, workability programmes, Healthy Ireland, lottery funding and the HSE. A team of six people in Kerry leveraged about €800,000 on top of core funding to support placements and set farms up initially.
Kerry operations and volunteering model
Kerry emphasised local delivery - "we look after Kerry" - and currently relies on facilitators and a volunteering principle rather than direct farm payments in-county. Organisers said they do not pay farmers from core running funds and that demand is increasing, putting the project under pressure to recruit facilitators and manage growing interest.
Calls for expanded funding and consequences
He noted core Department funding covers network administration but not the full cost of farmer payments and said the programme could double placements and increase farmer pay to €1.6 million instead of €800,000 if additional funding came from health, social care, justice and education. He described the opportunity for local development companies to bid again for departmental funding under the next tender round.
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Transcript
First of all, thanks for coming in. I've been on farms where basically a number of people have been on it together, down in Bail and Benlach and up in Athenry at Murphys and down in Barlow's and Glinsk, and I think it's great what it has done. I just kind of get my head around something, and I'm trying to fathom it. The Department of Agriculture, is Leitham the overarching body overall, Ireland? That's the first thing I'm trying to find out. Or is there different parts around the country? I'm trying to see, so you're talking about the Department of Agriculture, two or four hundred thousand, and then other departments, be it Hildegard, Nocton's or whatever, and how many farmers are involved, and what's administration costing, as again, what the farmers get? I just kind of fathom the whole structure. So, Leitham Development Company has a national contract to develop the national network. It's four hundred thousand a year from the Department of Agriculture. So Kerry do the job for a hundred thousand a year in County Kerry. We do it for four hundred in twenty-five counties. We subcontract three other local development companies to help us, and that's how it works. We branded it overall, Social Farming Ireland, so that it would be a national network. Otherwise, you'll have twenty-six Social Farming Kerry. And is four hundred thousand the total you get, or is there other avenues you get money? That's the total we get to run the network. Then we get… That's the network? The network. So, set up the farmers, train them, put them in place… And how many people is involved in that? There's two hundred farmers, yes. No, but are many people directly employed on that? There's… For myself… Well, I only work part-time, because I work on Leader, I work on other programmes. Helen is full-time. We have… And what percentage does the farmers get? Because they're the people every day… The farmers get paid. I think, like, the farmers… I heard the figure is a euro. Per person per day, so they get about 250 euros a day. It's a… They can actually… They may have to go and pick somebody up as well. I think farmers should be well looked after… And they are. And last year, of that thousand people that went on farms, we paid about 800,000 into farmers' pockets… Okay. …for the time that they spent with those people. That money came from local development companies, workability programmes, Healthy Ireland, lottery funding… HSE… HSE… It came from all over the place. Yeah. And that's why we went to Hildegard and Ockden and said, we need more of this, because there's more people with disabilities who want to go out. And the 100,000 that you're looking for now… It's Kerry… Is that for Kerry? Yes. Okay. So… Sorry, can I just say… The 800,000 is what our team of six people leveraged on top of the funding… On top of the funding… Okay. Some of the Agriculture Fund also makes its way onto farms, because we use some of it for the initial placements, and to set farms up, and to help them with the initial couple of placements that they may have. So it doesn't all go to administration. I've seen it in action. I've been at… Yeah. I've been at places right around the constituency where even, you know, when their recognition is coming out for, say, a group of people, people say that it'd be attending them, or youngsters with disabilities. And I think it's a great, great system. But I could… I was trying to establish… Kerry is looking for 100 more. Are ye funded enough, or what? Our core funding for now is sufficient for us from the department… Okay. …but it isn't to pay the farmers for the placements. We would double the number of placements on farms and pay the farmers 1.6 million instead of the 800,000 we paid them last year, if we got the money from health and social care, from justice, health and education. And do ye distribute all the money is what I'm trying to… Yes. Because I heard Kerry saying there that they got local money off X, Y and Z, and I'd like to hear… That's an addition, is it, to what ye do? That's an addition to what… Yeah. That's an addition to the 100,000. Do you get it? Mr. McCartney? Yeah. I suppose it's very clear to you here. In Kerry, we look after Kerry. Right. And we're very proud of that, as a county. Okay? So, we have an opportunity, like every local development company will have, next year, with the department proper tender, to bid for our funding again. And any company in the country can do so. Okay? So we bid for it, we have to put in a proper bid, and there's fine scores and we get the funding. Do you get money from Neatrum? No. Right, okay. So you're separate? Correct. Okay. We look in Kerry, and we look after Kerry. Okay? And we're very proud of that. And we have 40 farmers doing this in Kerry now. And we're under savage pressure, because more farmers are telling more farmers about the success of this project. And they want to join. And we need to manage the project with facilitators on the ground. We put our money into facilitators on the ground. We don't pay farmers. We don't pay Kerry footballers to pay for Kerry. We don't pay farmers. And it's the principle of volunteering, it's the principle of our project. And we're very proud of it. Okay? If we want to pay farmers, which we do with loads of other schemes, rural source schemes, walk schemes, the whole plethora, and we want to get more money to farmers, we have loads of ways to do that. But now, if we want to pay farmers the rates that they should be paid for doing this, we'd be looking for a million plus. Yeah. Okay? And we'd gladly write the cheques. Because when I design the water... The government gets nothing in Kerry. It's volunteering. Okay. The government gets no money. The focus is on in Kerry, on the participant, the relationship, the communication, the family. I have a young fellow coming to me, and he says, Siobhan is his second mother. Siobhan can't get any more family than that. Maybe Brendan would like to give his experience, because no one asked him a question yet. And thank Michael for that. Okay. One second if Brendan wants to talk about his experience. Right. Look, I go social farming, and I do farming, don't Kerry. I go to Josh Kerry, and I do all the farming things. And Josh tell me what to do, I do it. Because I love farming, and I love it. I want to keep up farming, and because we were like the test, I don't want to lose my farm, and I don't want to lose the goat farming. So I like to keep up farming, and do it. And that's it. Thank you, Brendan. Thank you, Brendan. Thank you, Brendan.