Agriculture: Savings made because of the large drop in the number of cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) helped to boost the percentage increase in the gross estimate for the Department of Agriculture and Food to 8 per cent. The increase was also helped by the transfer of the Department of Forestry back to Agriculture, which meant the gross estimate included an additional €108 million.
The provision for BSE and general disease control and eradication fell from €149.25 million last year to €80.4 million, a cut of 46 per cent.
At a press conference yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, said this was a real success story because BSE was now confined to old cows and there had been a dramatic fall in cases and in the costs involved in handling the disease. BSE has cost the State nearly €1 billion since 2000.
Other areas where expenditure was being reduced, he said, included Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, where the grant for general expenses was cut by 5 per cent, to €88.5 million.
Mr Walsh said this should be seen against a background where Teagasc's capital development needs next year would be funded from the sale of some of its assets, including its head office.
The Estimates provided for a 40 per cent increase in the provision for the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, from €190 million last year to €260 million in the coming year.
Mr Walsh said this was possible because the scheme was under-subscribed by nearly €20 million last year.
The two main farm organisations welcomed the Estimates, with the Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr John Dillon, saying he was pleased with the higher funding for the REPS scheme.
This was welcomed, too, by Mr Pat O' Rourke, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, who said the Estimates were a step in the right direction.
However, the general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers' Association, Mr Eddie Punch, who said the reduction in support for testing older cattle for BSE, saving the Exchequer €2.6 million, was unjustified and penny-pinching.
The strongest criticism of the Estimates came from Fine Gael's spokesman on agriculture, Deputy Billy Timmins, who said the cuts to Teagasc could not have come at a worse time, when farmers were so badly in need of expert advice at a time of immense change.