Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Mr. O'Driscoll on his appointment and we look forward to working with him. Many of the issues I want to raise have already been covered. We have much work to do. The genomics scheme has given us greatest pain in recent days, particularly since the forms came out. Having to sign up for six years is a serious problem and the star system is another. Who will draw up the carbon footprint for farms and how much will it cost? When one considers all of the costs one wonders whether it is worthwhile going into the scheme. I agree it is a positive scheme and we must all breed better stock, but the amount of red tape involved is putting off many farmers. At a meeting in Leitrim last Thursday, which I did not attend, many farmers decided not to bother applying for it. We have a good bit of work to do to sort out the problems.

With regard to young farmers applying for top-ups to their entitlements, will it be possible to pay the top-ups to 90 ha? Provision was made for this but will the Department be able to live up to it? Young farmers who have been farming since 2002 have no entitlements but provisions for them were tied in. They have the necessary green certificates but are excluded because they were in farming before 2008. What is the situation for them?