Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the figure for the underspend for last year for the Department, I cannot recall exactly but I believe the leftover at the end of the year was to the tune of €70 million. Will the Minister indicate what that figure was at the year end and what was done with those funds? Were they left in the Department? Were they carried over?

I am aware that the Minister is moving €48 million today from a certain number of funds and destinations to others. Does the Minister expect an underspend in the Department at the end of the year aside from this? I do not see any reference to TAMS in today's figures but TAMS certainly seems to be underspent this year. Does the Minister have any data on that?

Deputy Cahill made reference to the €6.5 million allocation. It is very welcome and necessary and is something we pushed for over a period of time. Is it going to be built into the base fund going forward, or is the €6.5 million a once off?

The Minister is transferring €8 million from the sheep welfare scheme into other programmes. There was a very sensible suggestion put forward relating to hill sheep - an additional €5 given on hill sheep - especially given the pressure the sector is under with margins being so low. I thought this was a worthy suggestion. Has the Minister considered this proposal? Perhaps he will clarify why he is not going down that route.

The Minister proposes to move additional funds into GLAS to bring it up to the 85% forward payment. There were significant issues and difficulties last year in relation to GLAS but the Minister is moving €14.5 million into it. Given that the payments are due to start issuing next week, as the Minister indicated in his opening statement, how confident does he feel that the difficulties experienced last year will not be repeated this year? With the commonage management plans, up to 9,000 applicants, or 20%, potentially have commonage. An issue is brewing where payments may be delayed to those who have not been able to get their commonage management plans completed, which is the vast majority. I honestly believe that a way should be found to pay them in advance pending the plans being completed. They should not have to wait. There were delays in the Department also in getting the system up and running and in making sure it was all in order. It is important farmers are not left to feel the financial pain as a result of that.

I am aware that it is slightly off-topic but will the Minister comment on the areas that were burned? Those farmers' payments are delayed. I want to draw the Minister's attention to the hill burning that occurred earlier in 2017 with gorse burning. Hills and commonages in particular were burned. As a result farmers' single farm payments are delayed because their areas are declared ineligible. It is a real issue for those involved. It is tricky and messy and we need to find a resolution. There are many genuine cases where things happen which are outside people's control. While they may have had nothing to do with it, they had their hill burned and are now finding difficulties with their payment.

Deputy Cahill made reference to the fodder scheme. I echo his comments in that regard. The Minister has said that he will look at the scheme in due course. Perhaps the Minister will define what he means by "in due course". Given the fact that the issue is recognised, would it not be appropriate to put a small fund in place sufficient to provide assistance to these farmers? This would mean that where the Teagasc assessment identifies farmers in difficulty early engagement and assistance would be given. This is especially relevant in the provision of concentrates. By providing some concentrates, or funding towards concentrates, at an early stage it can take the pressure off, increasing prices for roughage fodder.