Agriculture adhering to €300m cuts called for by Bord Snip
The biggest single Department of Agriculture saving envisaged was €80m, by closing REPS 4. This was implemented in July, 2009, and has led to annual savings of €80m (assuming there would have been 13,000 new applicants annually). These savings are offset by the cost of the new Agri-environment Options Scheme, introduced in March, 2010.
With regard to the Bord Snip recommendation to save €66m of annual expenditure on disadvantaged areas (a 30% cut), the department said expenditure had previously been reduced by 14% (€35m per year) in the October, 2008 budget. An Bord Snip had recommended that €44m be saved by terminating the suckler cow scheme. An annual saving of €32m had been achieved, by reducing the payment rate from €80 to €40 per eligible animal, in the October, 2008 budget.
It was recommended in the Bord Snip report of the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes that €30m per year be saved by reducing Teagasc staff numbers and rationalising offices. Ongoing staff reductions and office rationalisation were under way, and the grant-in-aid to Teagasc had been reduced from €127.3m, in 2008, to €119.9m, in 2009, and €114.1m, in 2010.
A review of administration costs in food safety, animal health, plant health, etc, was recommended, to reduce costs by 10%, or €15m per year. Savings of €10m were recommended by reducing department staff numbers and implementing efficiency savings. And €8.3m could be saved in staff reductions food safety, etc, said Bord Snip, which also said €7.5m could be saved annually in staffing reductions, rural development/agri-environment, etc.
The outcome, said the department, is that expenditure on salaries, wages and allowances has reduced from €233m, in 2008, to €226.2m, in 2009, and there was an allocation of €197m in 2010. In the same period, expenditure on travel and subsistence was reduced from €15.2m to €9.77m, and to €9.72m.
Transferring agricultural research funding to a new, single funding stream for all government research was recommended to save €14m. This has not been implemented. While research and development funding will be centralised, as announced in the 2010 budget, the Department of Agriculture’s R&D funding has not been included in the new arrangement. No saving is envisaged, because funding is required to meet existing commitments.
The department says the transfer of BIM marketing functions into An Bord Bia, and COFORD’s integration into the department, represent partial implementation of the recommended transfer of the export promotion functions of An Bord Bia and BIM to Enterprise Ireland. Recommending savings of €7.3m, An Bord Snip suggested the transfer of BIM’s other functions to DAFF, and consideration of the same course for An Bord Bia.
But the Bord Snip call to save €5m by increasing disease levies has not been implemented. Nor was the advice to save €9m, in a review of the operation of the TB and Brucellosis Eradication Scheme. The department said a recommendation to reduce disease compensation to 75% was not proceeded with, because there would be consequent loss of €4.5m of EU co-funding, and extra insurance costs for farmers.
Reduction of €1m in travel and subsistence costs has been achieved in disease eradication, as a result of new procedures. In this regard, Bord Snip had said €2m could be saved by efficiencies and reform in inspection procedures, including disease eradication.
The recommendation to save €7m, through rationalisation of the department’s local office network, is being implemented.
The 48 local offices (DVO, AES, and forestry offices) are to be reduced to 16. Total savings are estimated at €30m per year, with reduction in staff numbers of 400 on completion of the rationalisation programme.
