Mr. Joe Healy:

The plain and simple answer to Deputy Deering's question is that the pilot is closed and we have called for it to be reopened. It was fully subscribed. Deputy Deering correctly stated that just shy of 25,000 farmers participate in it. There are 550,000 cows involved in it. It was a good scheme that was probably sold and explained badly to farmers at the start, and despite that, farmers showed their willingness to get involved in it. It is important that they are for a number of reasons.

Many of the measures help the environment. As direct payments account for more than 100% of the average farm income on those farms, obviously it is important. Even going back to the emissions per calorie of food, that has been reduced on Irish farms by 14% since 2013. The target is that it will be reduced by 25% by 2030.