Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

That issue is one that cuts across EU provisions. There are EU provisions in place relating to the definition of a young farmer that we cannot change. Built into both the direct payments and the rural development regulation is a definition of a young farmer that we cannot simply get around. There is a significant EU element to that issue, which makes that difficult. Deputy Cahill was right in what he said about the milk reduction scheme. There were 4,400 applicants for the first tranche of that scheme. There is no penalty in that respect so many of those applications may not follow through. The farmers who applied for it were quite clever to do so and why would they not? It was a free shot, as it were, at getting extra funding. There is €150 million on the table under that scheme and if farmers can get hold of it, why not? However, as a country, we are not going down the milk production reduction route, rather we are going down the route of increasing milk production. If some of our farmers find advantage in the scheme, there is no reason they should not take advantage of it.

I cannot say when grain prices will turn. It is a very significant global issue. We are introducing a series of measures that we think will benefit our tillage farmers. The tillage TAMS, targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, will be introduced by the end of the year. The agri-loan scheme, to which I referred - the SBCI scheme mentioned by the Minister in the Estimates - should be of significant benefit to tillage farmers. There are measures under GLAS and so on that are very relevant to tillage farmers.

On the incidence of bovine tuberculosis, TB, Wicklow was specifically mentioned and it is regularly mentioned. It is true to say that in west Wicklow, in particular, the incidence rates of TB are quite high. Currently the incident rate is 11.9% in west Wicklow and 7.15% in east Wicklow and those rates contrast sharply with an incidence rate of a little over 3% nationally. Therefore, we have a problem in that area, of that there is no doubt.

We are talking to the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs regarding the deer population. We are hoping to have a limited cull in the Calary area, working through the two Departments in the near future. There is also a proposal to introduce a pilot deer fencing project, which may also help. Every initiative helps. Another proposal is to undertake a more comprehensive study of the incidence of TB in the county as a whole. The deer population may be part of the issue in Wicklow. My animal health experts tell me that it is not the whole picture by any means. Therefore, a detailed examination of exactly what is going on in the Wicklow area is merited and, hopefully, that will provide a way forward but we are also undertaking a cull. I read in a newspaper article today that over 4,000 licences for deer hunting have been awarded to hunters around the country.

We are making a good deal of progress on the issue of bovine viral diarrhoea persistently infected, BVD PI, animals, but as the Deputy knows, we have found that we have to make more and we have to continue tissue tagging. I agree with the Deputy that it is very unsatisfactory for farmers to retain PIs on their farms; it is not acceptable. The Department has made a great deal of effort to persuade farmers to cease holding PIs and it makes payments to farmers who do not hold them. There are still approximately 200 herds that are restricted due to retained PIs and we are trying to reduce that number. It used to be at a much higher level. We are also notifying PIs to neighbours as part of that continuing effort. In terms of addressing BVD, the estimated benefit to farmers is €66 million to date from 75% reduction we have got. If we got 100% reduction, that benefit to farmers would be more than €100 million. It would be money in farmers' pockets. We have to press on with this and we cannot allow a limited number of people to hold us back. I am completely at one with the Deputy on that.

I agreed that we should not compromise on standards in terms of tags. We are moving to have multiple tags. I imagine the evaluation committee may be sitting as we speak, but no tags are being tested independently and that process is ongoing.

On the issue of TAMS approvals, more than 80% of applications in the first two tranches have been approved and we are working through the approvals in the other tranches, but we have hit a completely different problem. The Deputy was misinformed about the payment system or the information he got may have been somewhat out of date. The payment system is in place now. The claims system is in place.