Rose Conway-Walsh on women farmers, CAP delays and IT failures
Rose Conway-Walsh raised concerns about a women's farm capital investment scheme and urged the minister to move the 2022 reference year so more women can qualify. She also called for an increased CAP budget to address inflation, condemned delayed payments - particularly acres - and criticised Department IT failures.
Scheme eligibility and base year
She highlighted that the scheme offers 60% grant aid for TAMS III, compared with the normal 40%, but the Department set 2022 as the base year for submitting a basic payment form. As a result, women who took herd numbers in 2023 and have submitted subsequent basic payment forms remain excluded under the current rules.
Grant rate and women farmers
She said the higher 60% rate is attractive and that policy should encourage, not discourage, women farmers. Some women have become herd owners unexpectedly - for example after a spouse's death - and are therefore locked out by the 2022 reference year.
Delayed payments and IT problems
She described delays in CAP payments, particularly payments for acres, as absolutely inexcusable and cruel and rejected computer glitches as an acceptable reason to withhold payments. She contrasted this with the government's approval of a £7 million Arts Council IT system that has never been used and urged the Department to resolve its IT issues.
CAP strategic plan objectives undermined
She warned that the acres debacle undermines three aims of the CAP strategic plan - protecting farm incomes, recognising the hard work of farm families regardless of location, and supporting climate ambitions - and said trust with farmers is at risk.
Budget, inflation and rural costs
She called for a substantially increased CAP budget that accounts for years of inflation, saying rural communities are crippled by the costs of living and that farmers face wholesale hikes in fuel and other necessities. She urged the minister and government to provide relief in the upcoming budget.
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Minister, before I talk to you about the wider cap agenda, I want to raise with you the schedule for a women's farm capital investment scheme, where women get 60% grant aid for TAMS III. The normal rate is obviously 40%, so this is attractive for many women farmers. However, when drawing up the rules of the scheme, the Department set a base year of 2022 as the year that a woman would have to have submitted a basic payment form. But we're now in 2025, and a woman farmer who took on the herd number in 2023 will have submitted three basic payment forms up to now, but will still not qualify for this scheme. Now, it's been normal procedures, you'll know in the past with various schemes, that if a base year for qualification was set, it got moved into the next year as the years progressed. So, some women have found themselves unwittingly becoming the herd owner when their spouse may have passed away, etc., and find themselves locked out of this scheme due to the 2022 reference year. So, I would ask you, Minister, can you advise if there are any plans to move forward the reference year? I think it's vitally important that you do so. We need to encourage, not discourage, women farmers. Minister, we drastically need to see an increased cap budget that takes into account inflation over the last number of years. People in rural Ireland are crippled by the costs of living. Those in agriculture reliant on cap payments have seen the wholesale hikes in costs of fuel as well as other necessities. The government must step in and offer some relief in the upcoming budget. It's not acceptable to set its face against hard-pressed families, with the cost of all items constantly rising. Minister, the delay in the payments, particularly in acres, is absolutely inexcusable and cruel. It's not just acceptable that computer glitches are used as a reason to withhold payments. Indeed, Minister, the government had no problem in signing off the Arts Council's spend of £7 million for an IT system that has never been used. It's high time that whatever the IT issue is in the Department of Agriculture was resolved. The debacle on acres runs contrary to three aims of the CAP strategic plan, and that is to protect farm incomes, to recognise the hard work of our farm families as food producers, regardless of where they live in the country, and to play a meaningful role in supporting our climate ambitions. We cannot do this if we're losing trust with Farmers Minister. We cannot lose this if time and time again payments are delayed. Goer Magad. Goer Magad.
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