Éamon Ó Cuív presses for inclusive post-glass environmental scheme

Minister, a new environmental scheme has been promised to follow on from the existing schemes. My question is, for those who were in EOS and had to leave EOS or weren't ever in a scheme, when will the new environmental scheme that has been promised in the interregnum between the old cap and the new cap, when will that be published and will it be a general scheme for farmers to join or will it be a very limited pilot scheme? Thank you very much, Deputy O'Keefe. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise my commitment to the provision of agro-environment schemes, which will continue to support the farming sector in these uncertain times, along with continuing the environmental benefits that such schemes have delivered as well. This commitment was demonstrated by a number of key provisions in the Department's budget estimate for 2021, including the provision of €79 million of new funding for a range of agro-environment initiatives. This funding includes a provision for a number of new initiatives and for the development of a pilot project to examine the implementation of results-based environmental actions. The exact amount of the €79 million to go towards the pilot scheme is something I will still have to determine, but the new pilot project will have a significant focus on biodiversity and climate change, with the aim of increasing the number of farmers undertaking agro-environment actions and will be directed at farmers not currently in the glass scheme. The Department is currently working on the details of this pilot and it is expected these pilot actions will inform the development then of a major new environmental scheme for agriculture following on from glass. In addition, as cap negotiations are ongoing, my Department is pressing for the earliest adoption of EU regulations to facilitate the operation of schemes in the period between the current cap and the cap strategic plan post-2020. The intention is to rollover existing schemes from the current RDP and to ensure that scheme participants have certainty on their scheme participation next year during the transitional phase. The budget funding allows for the rollover of glass, BDGP and the sheep welfare schemes subject to the agreement of the EU Commission and is also intended to have tranches of TAMS next year with the details to be finalised. I know the importance of environmental schemes and how you have advocated for them in the past and certainly this is a pilot scheme that will be in place next year and will be targeted at those not currently in glass. I get very worried when I hear the words pilot scheme. It seems limited, constrained, complicated and worrying. Now I often wonder are we going backwards or forwards? Because when Reps was there and then into EOS, when you left one Rep scheme you could join another. Particularly farmers in areas of high nature value farming, where you have got a lot of designations and so on, they came to depend on these for their livelihood. They were not allowed to expand their flocks or their herds. So Minister, the question is, is this just a limited, complicated, convoluted pilot scheme or is this a general scheme for farmers who have depended on these agro-environmental schemes? Not only to retain the farmers in good agro-environmental conditions, which they have to do because most of them are in designated areas, but also to put a crust on the table. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, well, as you know, Deputy O'Keeve, there was 35,000 farmers due to leave the glass scheme at the end of this year. And very importantly, the budget just passed provides funding to ensure that glass can roll over for those farmers so they can continue in it next year. There obviously is many farmers, there's a number of farmers as well outside of the glass scheme that don't have any scheme. And the intention is to put in place a pilot scheme for a number of those farmers, which will be an indicator in terms of what the future scheme will look like, and which will help inform as well, what the successor scheme to glass will be. So the new scheme, and it will be a pilot, will be targeted at non-glass farmers and will be designed in a way that will be reflective of what measures may form the successor to glass. Out of the 79 million as well, Deputy O'Keeve, there will be measures introduced which will be accessible to all farmers, both those in glass and those in no scheme at all at the moment, so that it will be more openly available too. Thank you Minister. Minister, can you tell me how many farmers left the EOS scheme and couldn't join the glass scheme because they stayed in it to the end? And how many of those are going to be able to join this pilot scheme that seems to be going to have very limited numbers? But this is bread and butter, this is survival for people on their farms. This isn't some added extra, and it's fine to say that all the other farmers are going to be able to get in on something. As I said, this cohort of farmers that were in EOS had been in REPS 1, REPS 2, REPS 3, REPS 4, EOS and so on, and suddenly they came off a cliff financially. All they have to do is to check the financial records. Are they all going to be facilitated if they want to join this pilot scheme? I know, Deputy O'Queave, the issue of the EOS farmers who finished out their scheme and therefore were blocked from being able to join glass as a result of it being closed, that you have raised it on a number of occasions. They are certainly a category that need to be catered for. It would be my intention in terms of the pilot scheme that those who were previously in the scheme and would wish to be in the scheme and have form in relation to being in the scheme do are catered for in relation to the new pilot. Thank you, thank you.