Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to the Deputy on that issue as I do not have the answer but I will get an answer to his question.

In response to the Deputy's question on the Teagasc figures, there was an extraordinary bulge in 2015 because of the new young farmer and the national reserve applications. The numbers will be slightly less than that but they are approaching more manageable proportions now.

The Deputy knows that in 2015 in respect of the national reserve, there was a specific concession made to persons who were applying for these scheme. Previously one had to have the educational course completed in 2015 but the concession the Department gave, about which the European Commission was not particularly pleased, was that once a person had enrolled and had one module completed in 2015, he or she was eligible - provided he or she followed through and completed the educational qualification - to apply for the young farmer and the national reserve entitlement.

There had not been a scheme like that for several years before that. We are now having a separate scheme in 2017 but a lot of the heat was taken out by the 2015 process. The numbers are falling back and are a bit more manageable now.