Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister referred to €22 million in savings, which are to be combined with additional gross provisions of just over €60 million to provide €32 million for farm schemes and €30 million for Brexit infrastructure. The Minister mentioned border posts, which I take to refer to the ports of Rosslare and Dublin. What about other ports? What are the implications for that €30 million the Minister is seeking? Will there be implications for border infrastructure along the land border as well?

I was surprised about the savings made from the control of horses, because there is a huge problem with the control of horses in this State. There was a saving of €2.5 million due to lower demand for the control of horses, electronic sheep identification and measures relating to other diseases. I do not know about the sheep electronic identification but the Minister might outline the current situation regarding the control of horses, because there is some confusion, particularly at local authority level, about microchipping, what powers they have, and so on. I do not expect the Minister to go into it because these are Estimates, but he might give us an overview. Horse welfare is a huge problem, as are stray horses. It has been a huge problem in recent years, though I can only speak for my own constituency. I still encounter problems with horse control, horse welfare and horses having to be impounded.

Provision for the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, has gone up by 8.9%, which people have welcomed. I wanted to ask the Minister about the issue of microgeneration, which I have been pushing for a long time. Is there provision in TAMS this year, or will there be in the coming year, to get farmers involved in microgeneration, such as solar, small-scale biogas, or wind power?

The organic farming scheme has been oversubscribed and there has been much lobbying around it. We have to get a higher return from our food, and 90% of our vegetables are imported. Some of that cannot be avoided due to our wet climate, but some of it can be. How can we reopen the organic farming scheme and put in extra funding for it? The Minister does not appear to be seeking additional funding for it in his supplementary budget.