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

They do. Quite a number of farmers chose not to be involved in the scheme. We are catering for the number who decided to apply for the scheme and a few more, but there will be farmers who will choose not to be part of the new beef genomic scheme. I do not know why, but that is their choice. They may not want the hassle, for example. Some of them may be part-time. However, this is not about big and small farmers. There is no reason farmers with small suckler herds cannot be part of the scheme if they want to be. It is not a case either of west versus east or north versus south. Nobody is excluded if he or she wants to be part of the scheme. The idea that we have to provide something else for those who do not qualify or those who are not part of the beef genomic scheme does not arise. Any suckler farmer who does not want to be part of it is choosing not to be, just like the farmers who chose not to be part of the suckler cow welfare scheme. We cannot pay those farmers if they are not doing anything to draw down a payment. If we did, we would be introducing some kind of coupled payment and we are not doing so.