Agriculture: An underspend of €105 million by the Department of Agriculture and Food this year boosted the estimate for 2005 by 10 per cent to €1.426 billion which received a guarded welcome from farm organisations yesterday. Sean Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
But Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said the estimate was nothing more than a "paper exercise" which concealed critical cuts this year in critical areas of the industry.
He said the Department had slashed the Food Safety and Animal Health and Welfare budget by 9 per cent at a time when there was increasing public disquiet over food safety. But the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Ms Coughlan, said the cut from €187 million to €170.6 millionwas possible because of significant reductions in the incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bovine TB and brucellosis in cattle this year.
The Minister, who was at the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association a.g.m. in Limerick, said the progress in controlling these animal diseases was reassuring and she was confident it could be maintained.
Mr Naughten also attacked the 4 per cent rise in the allocation for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme which he said indicated the scheme was unattractive to farmers.
But Ms Coughlan could understand that farmers were slow to make decisions while the details of the Single Payment and Nitrates Directive were being worked out. "However, farmers are now in a much better position to assess their situation realistically and I would encourage those not already in REPS to carefully consider joining the scheme," she said.
The Minister welcomed the increased funding for her Department which represented a 10 per cent rise over the projected outturn for next year. The provisions, taken with EU-funded direct payments to farmers and on market supports, would amount to almost €1.9 billion in 2005, bringing total potential gross expenditure next year to €3.3 billion, the highest annual expenditure in recent years, she said.
The Irish Farmers Association estimated that when underspending was accounted for, the net estimate for next year was a 5 per cent rise on the equivalent figure for 2004.