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

Unfortunately, the Minister of State is dodging the issue. The situation is very simple. Under the regulations which were introduced in 1997, a farmer was not obliged to join GLAS. As I said, the majority of farmers are not in GLAS. If their output was affected by the habitats directive, they were entitled to compensation. Is the Minister of State going to comply with the law and make that compensation available? This was put in place under the Department and its regulations. I accept that if a farmer is in GLAS, which the minority are, he or she cannot get double compensation for the same action. That is the point. However, as the Minister of State knows, for many years, if one was not in the GLAS scheme and had to destock, one could get the money from the National Parks and Wildlife Service scheme.