Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Therefore, is the Minister of State telling me that the Department will continue flouting the law? Under the regulations brought in by Michael D. Higgins, when he was Minister rather than President, there was compensation to be paid to farmers. As the Minister of State's Secretary General will be able to tell him, for many years there was a scheme whereby, if farmers had a loss due to designation of traditional farming practices, they were entitled to compensation. That was stopped on the spurious excuse that there was no money but unless one changes the law, one has to find the money. It is not a question of discretion. Can the Minister of State reassure farmers that that money will be made available and that they will not have to take the Department to court to get the money?