Michael Fitzmaurice Demands Answers on BVD Calf Payments

Do you reckon, first of all, Minister? A calf out of a suckler cow, a federe calf with a charlie or a limousine is worth €600 or €700 at the moment in the maths. A calf out of a suckler must be worth a few hundred more. Is that what you're giving for the Memphis? Yeah, that would be, yeah. You're giving that to him, right? In the BVD... Don't go buying and selling there now, lads. In the BVD, Minister, I don't see anything extra, because my understanding under the BVD scheme, a farmer, be them from the dairy herd or the suckler herd, gets something over 200 euro. Is there any fund extra to give that to those farmers? Because bear in mind, if you're a suckler farmer, you have nothing left if that calf is to go to the knackery. Yeah. So just in relation to the BVD and the challenges we have and the great efforts we've made in recent years to drive that down, our funding allocation for that is through Animal Health Ireland, AHI, in terms of the supports in that space. I've met with them previously. There's a number of different priorities they have, not just BVD. There's a lot of nasty diseases out there that we are working with them on to support them in the efforts that they're making that can have an impact on production and on value. But when you see €157 million going towards bovine TB, we have to make choices and decisions around where we put resources to try and drive down instances as well. So continue to fund the supports through Animal Health Ireland on BVD, but the additional money I've got I've put into... But have you any increase for those farmers, yes or no? Because it's an insult what they're getting for the calves with BVD. No. So as of now, there isn't... I don't have to figure out the Animal Health Ireland allocation there, but in terms of BVD, no. But my point back to you here is, like, we just had Bluetongue, we had Avon Influenza. There is a limited amount of money that I have to manage. Yeah, but in fairness, a farmer that gets BVD is as badly affected as someone that gets... Yeah, and we've made progress in that space, and we are funding supports in that area, but, like, in fairness as well, we have, you know, over 37,000 reactors for bovine TB, and it's a devastating thing to come. I have to manage the allocations I have, and I'm putting extra resources into the bovine TB element for a plan that will drive down instances into the future. Thank you. I want you to look at that, because some people are furious about it. In the line of areas of natural constraint, I see a small reduction. Is that that there's less farmers, or what's the reason there? So that small reduction is to meet budgetary pressures on it. So, no, and it's from the... There was 247 million allocated under the revised estimates for 2025, and a supplementary brought that up to 249 million, so that really was just managing out... So it didn't let there's less farmers getting this, no? No. Okay, that's grand. What figure are you getting in carbon tax in 2026 in total? We're going to get that to hand for you now in a minute, but it increases year on year. I can't remember it off the top of my head, but we'll have it there in a second. But it has, just to be clear, is it 140 million, 130 million? Anyway, I'll get it for you. You'll get it in a minute. Sorry, I have it here. Yeah, it's 173 million, so obviously that's been increasing year on year as the tax take from carbon tax increases. And that's 170 million in 2026 will go into the Acres program and support our funding efforts in Acres, and €3 million towards green agricultural pilots and anaerobic digestion. Okay. Organic, I see minus 3%. What does that mean? What subhead is that? It is under organics. Yeah, B15. Yeah, so on the organic scheme, so I opened up the organic scheme to the tillage sector and to a few other farmers, 259 places additional in that space. And then obviously some farmers drop out of organics as well, so that can lead to that. Okay. So some farmers, is it less farmers, is there less farmers in it now or what? Well, sir, there's always a churn on any scheme, and we have opened up new places for farmers to go in. I prioritised, as I said I would, in the budget. Is there more in organic this year or less than last year? Well, there'll be another 259 being welcomed in this year, and I would put a priority on tillage farmers for that, because part of our challenge for lifestyle farmers. Yeah, yeah, I'm asking the overall figure. I'll come back to you on that. That's okay, that's sound. SCBI loan, I just kind of fathom, I'm looking at like 2,000% or something, and maybe I'm reading it wrong. That is the one to EI, isn't it? So the SBCI loans, yeah, so the increase is due to new funding commitments to the SBCI due from 26 to 28 pending government approval. So that's something I do in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise. What is it for this year? So that is, so there was 300 million, and it's going to 6.4 million, but that's to cover the three-year period, isn't it? 6.4 for this year. 6.4? Million. What was it last year? So there was, yeah, so this is a new scheme, and I've come to an end, so the question, there was deliberations over whether it would continue or not. I was absolutely determined to, that we would continue to make a contribution and that SBCI loan would remain available, something that's very popular for farmers. All right, there's a land commission there, what's that in reference to, and a VIT fund appears to be down, what's that in relation to? You're doing well, Deputy, I have me jumping from sub-head to sub-head. Do you have the number for that one? No? I'm going to find it. E8. Oh, that's their receipt. Paging on you. Yes, land commission receipts, so that's the number of land purchases, annuity accounts. It's reducing year-on-year, and reducing anticipated receipts as well. And E11. E11, the veterinary fund, is reduced recoupment rates, 22%. Okay, reduced, and I see there's two and a half million, do you know, we used to call them the forgotten farmers, long, young, established, long-established young farmer. There was problems at that where some people didn't qualify. Are you going to re-look at that again for the ones that didn't qualify because they ended up with no payment in the hope over a number of years that they'd get something? So what I did, I inherited a commitment and a set of conditionality around that. I didn't change it. I didn't look to change that condition around it, but I made a commitment to pay those who qualified under the headings that it was. So it's fair to say a long-established thing that a lot of people talked about and was discussed at Lent at this Committee on Times as well. It grew to a situation where a lot more farmers felt they qualified as a forgotten farmer than actually did. But based on the criteria that I inherited, the amount of farmers who applied that met that. Which was the terms and conditions, let's be honest about it. There were the terms and conditions that were there. There were young farmers that didn't, or forgotten farmers, that there was no money there for them, so obviously they didn't do the green cert because they had the price of it. There was very specific requirements, I don't have the dates to hand, 2015, 2008, 2007, where those measures came in. So there was a commitment there that we would address the issue of the long-established farmer. However, I did that within the conditionality that was there, I think it's something that's been discussed at Lent. A lot of farmers hung around thinking it was coming. I don't intend to revisit it. So the conditionality around it was that you had previously benefit, unsuccessful applications for people who didn't get it, was if you'd previously benefited from installation aid, if you were over 40 in 2015, if you did not hold the required educational qualification. So we can't, sorry, just think that through now, you mentioned about the person couldn't afford to get the green cert. If you didn't have the green cert, like, how do we determine what an active farmer is? There was nothing there from. I know, hold on, the green cert was always there. No, there was nothing there from in getting money. That's the problem. But sorry, like, if you're saying one of the problems is they didn't have the green cert, if they didn't hold it... If they didn't, I know people that had the green cert in 2016, and because the cut-off date was 15, then for the... But sure, you always have to have a cut-off date. You can't have this run in perpetuity. You had to commence farming since 2008. You had to benefit from the young farmer sports since 2015 as well. There was very significant criteria there. No matter what criteria it is, there'll always be someone just on the wrong side of it. But I had to work with the criteria that was set down before me, and I don't intend revisiting that scheme. It's unfortunate. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, take that on board. The one thing, am I right in saying for this year coming, there's a sheep welfare scheme, there's the beef calf or the calf welfare scheme, or the calf scheme, and there's the strong corporation measure going to be on this year as well in 2026. Is that right? But you've lumped a few in there together now. So strong corporation. Strong corporation. Yeah. The sheep scheme. Yeah. And, you know, the calf scheme, the dairy calf scheme, or the 75 euro that went down to 60-something. Oh, yeah, yeah. Is there any more money, to know how it was promised last year at 75, and yes, I understand that more cattle went into it, is there any more of a budget for that in case more people look for it? That's all I'm saying. Last year it was announced, and I understand because I talked to the guys, they made it clear, I think, to the organisations at the time, but they didn't... It wasn't communicated out. Sorry, you threw me when you threw straw in with that as well. Strong corporation is different. But in terms of the livestock schemes, and I'm working off the top of my head now, but in 2024, we had somewhere in around 113, 114 million euro. And in 2025, we got an increase in the budget for all the livestock schemes for 131 million, to 131 million. So it was an increase of about 18 million. And I secured the same amount of money. And this was a big commitment that was sought by others as people were screaming at me for a tillage support scheme for increased money for Bowen TB. I managed under significant pressure to hold the same increased amount of 131 million. So the same amount for 2026 as there was in 2025. You asked the question, is there more money if more farmers apply? There is the same amount of increased record amount of money for livestock farmers. I don't determine how many farmers apply. Last year, there had been, you know, upset and commentary previously that farmers felt it was very late when the thing you saw up in June, July. On-farm decisions had been made that meant they couldn't maybe have some of the interventions that would have allowed them to qualify for it. So I opened it earlier last year, worked with colleagues in the department, got it open in April and had that extra amount there and was able to communicate that out clearly. That led to a record amount of people applying. That and the increased amount of money being there. Two minutes, 10 seconds over time. That's great. Fair enough. But anyway, so the same amount of money, I don't, I expect a significant amount of interest again this year, but 131 million is the total pot. Thank you.