Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the number of schemes introduced this year. GLAS, in particular, was announced last week. The challenge in respect of GLAS will be to get as many farmers as possible into the scheme and ensuring they get as much as possible out of it as fast as possible. Is there a plan in place to do that?

The next issue is farm safety. There is major concern about that. Is the Minister planning to introduce a special part of the knowledge transfer scheme where farm safety may be involved in this scheme, whether compulsory or otherwise? We discussed this at a previous meeting and it was referred to earlier. It might be the way to go. Has the Minister considered any options in that regard?

The targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, will be announced in a month or six weeks.

The criteria for TAMS was previously very rigid. The Minister's statement mentioned the opportunities for the dairy sector involved in TAMS. Will it be specific dairy equipment for example, or is there a list of issues that could come under that area? For example, if a farmer wanted to improve his roadway structure, would that qualify under TAMS?

There is a proposed increase in spending on the control of horses in the coming year. Is this money that is specifically allocated to local authorities for horses that may be running wild in the urban areas? It is a huge problem in urban areas whereby horses are left go wild and it then falls back on somebody to tidy it up. The somebody is the local authority and there is a cost involved in that. In my own town of Carlow, it is an ongoing issue whereby so-called stray horses are left to be looked after. It is a huge cost. The horses cause untold damage and hassle everywhere. One would have to wonder if the people who may own these horses can be made directly responsible in some way.

I would like to pick up on the points my colleagues have made on the Commission on the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, report and the €1 million allocation. Is that allocation for the implementation of the report? There are 37 different recommendations in it - have they been prioritised or is an implementation committee in place? The Minister of State is directly responsible for this. There is a lot of good information in the report that could be very helpful for rural Ireland.

As Deputy Penrose mentioned previously, we have always talked about bureaucracy. When all the schemes start off, we talk about what would make them more consumer friendly and farmer friendly, yet the process seems to be getting more and more bureaucratic. Is it possible to make it more friendly?