The Sheep Improvement Scheme would need to pay €33/head to bring payment rates in line with those made to suckler farmers on a livestock unit basis, Fianna Fáil Senator Erin McGreehan told Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

The scheme, which will replace the current Sheep Welfare Scheme, is due to open to farmers next year with a proposed payment rate of €12/head.

This is significantly behind the per livestock unit beef scheme payment, the senator suggested.

“You will find the counties with the most marginal land, hilly land and the poorest of farmers, you will find sheep and mixed suckler and sheep,” Senator McGreehan said on Tuesday.

“And what I wanted today Minister is to highlight a specific mathematic discrepancy. So, 15 cattle equal 100 ewes. [Under the new CAP] 15 cattle will receive €3,350 and 100 ewes will get €1,200.”

The senator claimed that farmers would need to receive payment of €33/head under the sheep scheme to bring the payment rate in line with the new CAP suckler scheme’s livestock unit equivalent.

“Minister, if sheep farmers are getting the same supports as suckler farmers, it would represent a payment of around €33/ewe rather than the €12/ewe promised,” she said.

Minister response

Minister McConalogue responded by acknowledging the role that sheep farming plays in rural communities and stated that other non-headage payments are open to eligible sheep farmers.

He listed the Organic Farming Scheme, the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme among these schemes.

“In relation specifically to the payment rates for the new Rural Development Programme’s Sheep Welfare Scheme, the payment rate is being increased from €10/head currently to €12,” he commented in the Seanad.

“The payment rate per animal is also being increased in the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) for suckler cows.”

The request for additional sheep funding was put forward strongly during the CAP plan negotiations consultation, he added.

The Minister said that schemes “can evolve” and “be strengthened” after the introduction of a fresh CAP plan.