Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the €4.5 million for ANC, I would have thought €200 million was adequate to cover applicants. Will the Minister clarify why €4.5 million is needed for the ANC scheme? I welcome the extra money for Bord Bia because with the challenges we are facing with Brexit, which we do not have to elaborate on here, Bord Bia needs all the funding it can get to withstand the market challenges it would face in a hard Brexit. We had farmers who were aggrieved that they did not qualify for the loan scheme the last time. Will it be at the same interest rate as the last time? Will people who failed to qualify get priority for this extra €25 million?

It is charitable for a country such as ours to provide €14 million to the World Food Programme but Fianna Fáil raised a Topical Issue matter last week which highlighted the fodder crisis in the west of Ireland and the pressure that will be there in the spring of 2018. This was an ideal opportunity for the Minister to put aside money for aid for those farmers and I am disappointed that there is no provision for funding for that impending crisis. There will be a severe further shortage in the west. A number of funding sources are available and I would be disappointed if one of those was not used to address this crisis. Eight of us spoke on it last week in a Topical Issue debate in the Dáil and that is the one significant disappointment I have with this reallocation of funds and it is a serious missed opportunity. I welcome the money for Bord Bia, which is sensible, but I would like clarification on the €25 million for ANC. Will that be at the same interest rate and will farmers who failed last time around get priority?