asked the Minister for Agriculture the steps he will take to assist farmers who are outside the scope of the reintroduced farm modernisation scheme.

17.

asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will allow other low income farmers with young school going children into the farm modernisation scheme; and if he will extend the expiry date for development farmers by two years.

18.

asked the Minister for Agriculture the plans he has for other low category farmers under the terms of the revised farm modernisation scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 16, 17 and 18 together.

While farmers in the "other low" category do not qualify for aid under the revised farm modernisation scheme, some farmers in this category in the west of Ireland who follow an improvement plan designed to increase beef and sheep output may be eligible for grant aid for buildings for livestock under the orientation of production element of the western package. There are also aids for land drainage and land improvement available under the western drainage scheme and western package.

In view of the limited resources available it is not possible at this time to provide additional aids for farmers outside the scope of the revised farm modernisation scheme.

Development and "other high" farmers are being allowed an additional period of up to 11 months to complete items of investment on their plans on 10 February 1983, which are eligible for aid under the revised scheme. The additional period is in lieu of time lost during the period of suspension of aid for certain investment.

Is the Minister aware that when we were discussing this topic last June or July a statement was made to the effect that farmers would qualify under the western package? Is the Minister aware that in the course of a reply to a parliamentary question at the end of last year I was told that only £77,000, a pittance, had been paid under that scheme for farm buildings? Is the Minister aware that the reason most of the farmers in Cavan-Monaghan, Donegal and other parts of the west could not avail of this scheme was because the main source of income for most of those farmers was milk production? As a result those farmers were debarred.

I do not know to whom the Deputy addressed the question because I do not recall giving a reply to it.

I was told that such farmers would qualify under the western package. At the end of the year I was told that only £77,000 had been paid out in grants for farm buildings in the west. That works out at about ten or 12 grants or one grant per county.

I take the Deputy's word for that.

Will the Minister agree that most farmers after the six year period has lapsed are classified as "others"? In my county about 10 per cent of them move up into "development" and the others go down to "other low". Those farmers are now debarred completely from grant aid. They have been thrown to the wind. When the scheme was reintroduced did the Department look at the details of it and take into consideration the number of farmers who would be debarred? In Cavan-Monaghan four-fifths of the farmers are being condemned to be without a grant from now on and I believe the same applies throughout the west although we are supposed to get £300,000 over a ten year period to develop that region.

I believe the figures asked for are given in the reply to the next question.

19.

asked the Minister for Agriculture the percentage of farmers in Cavan-Monaghan who are classified as "other low" under the farm modernisation scheme; and the grant aid that is available for the erection of farm buildings for cattle for farmers classified in that category.

The percentages of farmers classified as "other low" in counties Cavan and Monaghan are 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. No grant aid is available for "other low" farmers under the revised farm modernisation scheme. However, farmers below the development level who follow an improvement plan designed to increase beef and sheep output may be eligible for grant aid for buildings for livestock under the orientation of production element of the western package.

Is the Minister aware that in Monaghan 900 farmers out of 5,000 have qualified for development and the remainder, four-fifths of the farmers of the county, do not qualify? The reason why the figure for the county is 14 per cent is because there was no grant aid available and they were not reclassified. Will the Minister ask the ACOT office in Monaghan to examine the remaining 83 per cent of farmers? If they were to be classified tomorrow it would be found that most of them had passed the six year period. If they apply for a grant now they will be classified as "other low" and will not get it. It is wrong to give this type of misleading information.

I would not like any Member to think that I am giving misleading information.

I will qualify my statement by saying that it is not the Minister who is giving misleading information. The fact is that 80 per cent of the 4,000 farmers we are referring to if they applied for grant aid tomorrow would be classified as "other low". The system in the ACOT office is that they remain classified as "other high" until they apply for grant aid. Immediately they do that they are reclassified and dropped to "other low".

According to the information I have, 4,400 were classified in the small farm modernisation scheme in Cavan and 3,900 in Monaghan. Of these approximately 760 are classified "other low" in Cavan and 550 in Monaghan. However, I will look into the point made by the Deputy, that they were not classified because they did not apply for a grant.

I would be obliged if the Minister would do that because the information given is very misleading for the people in the "other low" category whose survival in future will depend on the Minister introducing a scheme of grants for them.

20.