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

Yes. There will be some spillover on GLAS payments from this year into next year, but that is the norm. The priority for farming organisations and farmers is always to get the maximum number of people in. If we have to split it between December and January to span two accounting years as regards Estimates, then we try to manage that as best we can.

On the capital programme, I am glad to have an opportunity to explain the approach the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is taking, because it is different to most other Departments. We have an agreed capital figure for 2016, which is €217 million. That is enough for us to do all the things that we are promising to do for next year. We then attempted to put numbers in terms of capital expenditure, linked to forestry; to the rural development programme, mainly TAMS; and to the capital expenditure we will need, for example, in fishery harbours and so on. We tried to put that profiling right up until 2021, but it was proving almost impossible to do that and get agreement on it because many of these schemes are demand-led.

Farmers approved for TAMS have two years to spend the money and they decide when they spend it. It is not like building roads, where the State can plan for expenditure depending on how much money it has. Essentially, we have agreed a baseline figure through to 2020. Incidentally, 2021 will be a new Common Agricultural Policy year so who knows what money will be available then.

We have agreed a baseline figure of €208 million, which is a significant increase on what was spent up to this year, and we have agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that we will add to that baseline figure annually taking account of what is likely to be spent year on year, which will be significantly more than €208 million in most years between now and 2020, to accommodate the commitments under the rural development programme, the forestry programme, the seafood development programme and so forth. For the first time in a Government-published document there is a full commitment from the Government to plan and estimate for the full delivery of the rural development programme by 2020. I am very happy with the outcome there. We have agreed the figure to be spent next year and a baseline figure after that, with very strong wording that states those figures will be topped up to accommodate the expenditure profile of the RDP as it rolls out. I hope that gives the Deputy an explanation of the numbers.