Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to see the IFA is now on board in regard to the beef genomics scheme because it was certainly a very reticent participant 12 months ago when mine was a lone voice in ensuring that people would not be misled in terms of their participation. Mr. Healy might not be aware of this but some of his predecessors were, shall we say, reluctant participants. Coming from the midlands, I want to stress how important it is that no one is misled. How many more farmers does Mr. Healy believe will participate in the scheme? Is it the aim of the IFA to get back up to the full €52 million that was allocated?

I can see the input of Liam Dunne into this paper. I want to support him in regard to the point that the most important thing for grain farmers is to succeed at European level, although there seem to be all sorts of obstacles in that regard. I took that on board last February following his advice. If the IFA can get that €50 million or €60 million back, it would mean a huge input cost reduction and would improve stability, particularly in the current context where grain crops have been hit by low yields, high costs and now cannot even be got out of the ground.

The targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, has not gone like clockwork, as we might have anticipated, and technology difficulties within the Department are one excuse. Has any progress been made in that regard and what is the current position?

I unequivocally support bringing the self-employed up to ordinary PAYE equivalent status and I believe it is high time equivalent credits were granted. What worries me is that we now see some of the tax strategy groups indicating they will wipe out some of those credits. If that happens, we will be further back than ever.

There is another issue that is probably in Liam Dunne's area. I have read in recent days of possible proposals to increase the price of green diesel and auto diesel, as an environmental measure, in order to bring it up to the price of petrol. Would that not be a retrograde step? It seems to be a case of tax strategy evaluation but it would probably send the entire sector into a tailspin at a critical time. We will have to keep a tight focus on these issues in terms of the negative impact they would have on the profitability of sectors in the industry that are already experiencing difficulties.