A TD is urging Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to welcome new applicants to the Sheep Welfare Scheme – regardless of whether they are classed as new entrants or not.
Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice has said that he has been contacted by a number of farmers in the past week who have said that they are being told they are not considered new entrants, and thus do not qualify.
The sixth year of the scheme was announced last week.
The Roscommon-Galway TD called on Minister McConalogue to welcome new applicants irrespective of their status as new entrants, adding that the full allotted budget for the scheme was not spent in the past five years.
Fitzmaurice noted that the department considers a new entrant to be a person “who has acquired a herd number in the past year in their name or who has been added in the last year”.
A person who has not farmed breeding ewes in the last two years in their herd number is also eligible to be considered a new entrant, he highlighted.
“Over the past few years, the budget outlined for the Sheep Welfare Scheme has not been fully allocated. But yet farmers wishing to partake in the sixth year of the scheme are being turned away,” the TD remarked.
“I have been contacted by a number of farmers in the past week who have been told they do not qualify as they are not considered new entrants.
“Given that this is the final year of the scheme as it stands, due to the introduction of the new Common Agricultural Policy [CAP], I am calling on the minister to relax the rules and allow all applicants to benefit from the scheme once they adhere to the measures,” Fitzmaurice urged.
Despite misgivings over the entrants, Fitzmaurice did welcome the decision to amend the reference year for existing participants, allowing farmers to choose the higher option between the existing reference year or their 2017 sheep census return.
“Given that the deadline for applications to the sixth year of the scheme closes on February 1, I hope Minister McConalogue will move swiftly in order to allow all applicants have an equal chance of availing of the benefits of the scheme,” Fitzmaurice concluded.