asked the Minister for Agriculture if he considers the present producer group grant scheme adequate to encourage horticultural producers to market through such groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The scheme of financial aid for producer groups in the fruit and vegetable sector operates under EC regulations and is the same in all member states. Under it a contribution is made towards the formation and operating costs of the producer group over a period of five years. Some progress has been made in setting up groups in the tomato and apple sectors but the response of the horticultural industry as a whole to the scheme has not been as good as I would have wished. The main obstacle is the traditional tendency of horticultural growers to operate independently. More co-operative effort is required to meet the demands and competition of present day marketing.

The IFA have undertaken steps to promote the development of producer groups among growers and funds have been made available to them for this purpose. ACOT's recently published fiveyear development programme for horticulture places considerable emphasis on the need for growers to organise themselves into producer groups.

Would the Minister agree that there is a need to make it more attractive for people to organise themselves into producer groups instead of their continuing to pursue the individualistic approach that has been the bane of the industry for years?

I would agree that the individualistic approach has been the bane of the industry, but it is very difficult to dissuade successful individuals from becoming involved with new growers especially since some of these individuals have captured for themselves a good slice of the market. However, I am encouraged by the recent move of the IFA to set up a producer group. That group are proving very successful and there are up to 200 growers involved. The group are hoping to cater for the needs at least of one major supplier in the Dublin area.

The three groups benefiting already are the APG Tomato Group, the Fingal Producer Group who are involved in apple production and the Green Ace Group who are involved in the production of apples and tomatoes.

In view of the apparent failure of the producer group scheme, would the Minister consider setting in motion machinery to renegotiate the scheme at EC level?

That is something we could consider. The grants available for producer groups are not insignificant. In terms of percentages, they may look small but in a five year period the levels are 5 per cent for the first two years, 4 per cent for the third year, 3 per cent for the fourth year and 2 per cent for the fifth year in terms of the total produce sold to the co-operative.

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