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

I am convinced by the arguments and we will continue to try to make the case. Deputy Heydon asked about the beef scheme. The irony of the beef genomics scheme is that a lot of farmers who decided, for whatever reason, that they did not want to get into it now want to get into it. If we are not spending the full amount that we anticipated we would spend - and we may be slightly under that this year - we will, of course, look to let more people in, but the rural development programme only has a set amount for the beef genomics scheme and we cannot spend more than that. There are issues around young farmers who are starting out and who may want to come into the beef genomics scheme late, having not been in farming at the start of the scheme. We need to prioritise them, but we will keep it under review with the working group and we will see how we can make sure we spend the full allocation. If that means letting more people in late, we can look at that, though it is not that easy to do, as one signs up for a certain number of years. If everybody in the scheme has signed up for five years and we take people in late there are knock-on problems because the scheme then goes beyond the lifetime of the current scheme into the next rural development programme into the 2020s. Late applicants are a headache for the purposes of managing the scheme, but we will look at making exceptions and showing flexibility where we are allowed to do so by the Commission.

I congratulate Senator O'Brien on the growth of her own company. I see her products all over the world when I travel.