11/05/2016

Payments For Pig And Dairy Farmers Issued

Payments for pig and dairy farmers have now been issued.

The payments are the final tranche under the package agreed at EU level in September last year which allocated €13.7 million for Ireland.

The Government subsequently matched the funding to provide an overall aid package of €27.4m.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed TD, said: "Working to improve farm incomes is my key priority as Minister. I am very aware that both the Irish dairy and pig sectors are under pressure at present as a result of current market difficulties. For this reason the Irish Government sought a number of measures to be taken at EU level to help to stabilise the market and provide some cash flow assistance to hard pressed farmers. The allocation of a direct aid package co-funded by the European Commission is one such measure and I am very pleased that we are in a position to match these EU funds with National funding.

"In the dairy sector, today's payments are a €1,000 top-up to almost 1,500 young farmers who were successful applicants under the Department's Young Farmer Scheme. This complements the payments to over 17,600 farmers in December. In the pig sector, there are almost 300 approved applications for aid, and payments of €3,300 to each participant have commenced this week."

(CD/LM)

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