€17.5m premia aid boost for farmers
Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, announced yesterday that she had received a positive response from Commissioner Fischer Boel to her request for EU assistance to deal with the overshoot of the Special Beef Premium quota.
Ms Coughlan said she had also received agreement for a significant Exchequer contribution.
"The combination of EU and national funding represents a very welcome resolution for what has been a difficult problem for Irish beef farmers," she said.
The overall package will be of considerable benefit to the 25,000 farmers who applied for more than 25 animals in the Special Beef Premium Scheme 2nd Age Category. Additional funding of €17.5m of which €8.9m will be provided from State finances will be available for these farmers and will almost halve the 23% cut already applied to their payments.
More than 52,600 farmers who claimed premia on 25 animals or less will not suffer any reduced payment.
On the 1st Age Category, Ms Coughlan said a very significant proportion of the payment cut has been offset by the large increase in the number of bulls claimed in Ireland in 2004. Bulls qualify for a payment of €210 per animal as against €150 per steer.
Ms Coughlan said that additional payments of about €8m will also be payable to Special Beef Premium applicants when the final calculation of the quota overshoot is taken into account. This includes 4.6m for farmers who claimed between 26 and 34 animals.
IFA President John Dillon welcomed the announcement.
