Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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58. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the proposal to bring forward a solution for the group known as the "forgotten farmers", given he has advised that his Department has been working on establishing systems for the roll-out of a scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18241/24]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister about the long-awaited scheme for the group known as the forgotten farmers. In our last round of questions back in February, the Minister advised that his Department was looking at establishing a system, but there is still no detail about what that scheme would look like. I have met with farmers who are part of this cohort known as the forgotten farmers. They are really at the end of their tether and are wondering if they should continue with their farms, so this is something that is urgently overdue.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Kerrane. As she knows, I have committed to supporting the group known as the forgotten farmers. I have made a clear commitment to them that I will deliver support to reflect the impact their missing out on certain payments had on their farming enterprises. This is a group of farmers whose members were under 40 in 2015 when the situation first came to light. At that point, they had already been actively farming for more than five years, meaning they were ineligible to access the national reserve in the previous CAP programme in 2015 to obtain an allocation of payment entitlements.

My Department carried out analysis on this grouping in 2015 and again in 2019 to determine the number of farmers affected and the cost of the supports required. These analyses showed that between 3,500 and 7,000 farmers could be in this category. The fact remains these farmers had met all the criteria regarding eligibility for schemes but they were unable to apply when regulations changed in 2015 regarding the maximum length of time since the farmer commenced farming.

In the 2015-2022 CAP programme, a farmer needed to hold payment entitlements to obtain the basic payment scheme payment and the associated greening payment. This payment formed the core of the Pillar 1 payments distributed to farmers annually. While some of the rules and dependencies on holding payment entitlements have changed in the new CAP we are currently in, they still form a central part of a farmer's payment in any given year.

Since this issue came to the fore back in 2015 and 2016, many of these farmers have already bought or rented entitlements, which is a key factor in eligibility for payments in the outgoing CAP programme and today. Although they now hold these entitlements, it remains that they were required to pay for them, in most instances, on the open market.

To assist these farmers, my Department developed a preliminary outline of a proposal to provide support to the forgotten farmer group. The support that was initially requested by the group was for access to the national reserve, but at this point, many of these farmers now hold entitlements already. In this regard, work continues on addressing a number of issues, such as the requirements for the type and level of supports that are required, the funding required and consistency with public expenditure and state aid considerations. I am committed to stepping this out and delivering for these farmers within the term of this Government.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate and acknowledge that the Minister has committed to this group of farmers that he will come up with a scheme that will financially support them, given they did lose out. At one point, the scheme was to be prepared in the first quarter of 2023. It was then to be published in May 2023. The system was being put together in February, and it is now April 2024. In a number of weeks, we will be going into summer recess. We will be coming back for the budget. By the sounds of things, there is no detailed scheme in place with regard to what this will look like. There is no funding in place either, and the Minister has committed that it will be done before the end of this term of Government, which is now a matter of months away. This cohort of farmers needs certainty. Is the Minister committing here today on the floor of the Dáil that the scheme will be in place and that they will be able to access it between now and February of next year?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It is a legacy issue that goes back to 2015 and I am committed to addressing it. Obviously, a key focus in the past year has been getting the current CAP programme up and running, making sure the schemes are running smoothly and putting the systems and structures in place for that. That has been a big area of emphasis and priority within the Department. All these farmers, as well as all other farmers, very much depend on the current CAP for their family farm income. The continuing work on ACRES and the delivery of support through TAMS, for example, as well as the many other schemes has been the big priority over the past year.

Many of these farmers have now been farming for up to 15 to 20 years. They had been farming for five years previous to 2015. I believe we need to recognise that they were not able to access particular supports in previous CAP programmes. I am continuing that work to bring clarity about how it will work. We will do that over the course of the coming months and bring further clarity to that. It is a commitment I will deliver on, but it has been affected by the work undertaken to roll out the existing CAP, which is very important for these farmers too.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister has said, this issue was identified back in 2015 and 2016. It has now been nearly a decade since then. In the past ten years, I do not believe it is fair or makes much sense, given this Government has now been in place for four years. If the Department was going to establish a system in February, it is now April. Given there are no details of the scheme or what it will look like and given there is no funding in place, is the Minister committing here today that, between now and the end of this term of Government, which will be in February of next year, a scheme will be put in place for the forgotten farmers and that they will be able to access that scheme between now and February? If the Minister is going to make that commitment, he should make it here today. It is concerning that, ten years after the fact, there is still no scheme and no detail of a scheme. A system was being built two months ago, but there does not seem to have been any mention of that here today. There is no funding to support these farmers either. Is the Minister committing that the scheme will be put in place between now and February of next year, which is a matter of months away?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I have very clearly committed to delivering a solution and outcome for these farmers. A number of considerations are being fully explored, for example, state aid considerations, the capacity to deliver it, and how it could be delivered within state aid constraints. There is also the budgetary aspect of it as well as the building out of the IT system which would be needed to identify all the farmers accurately and to deliver the final scheme. That work is ongoing and it will take a number of months to work through that. This is something I have been clearly committed to and have given a clear commitment to bring it to a finality. These are farmers who have been farming for 15 to 20 years and who are affected by it. As I said, over the past year a big focus has been on delivering this current CAP, making sure it is delivered well and that it supports farmers. This is a legacy issue that goes back more than ten years, that I am committed to finalising, and that I will do over the course of this year.