Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposal in question relates to a Pillar 2 scheme which is designed to match environmental management of sensitive geographical or mountainous areas with farming. This very interesting proposal was put forward by the Wicklow Uplands Council and, to some degree, it mirrors what was done in the context of a small environmental farming scheme that was put in place in the Burren. We only have so much money to spend on Pillar 2 schemes. There have been calls for a retirement scheme and we could put one in place but we would then be prevented from doing other things. We have considerably less money to spend on Pillar 2 schemes. The more new schemes we introduce, the more we will be obliged to abolish existing ones in order to provide funding. There is no magic tree from which we can continually pluck money.