Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a few points to the Minister and his officials. Like Deputy Penrose, I cannot believe this line in the Minister's opening statement: "More specifically, the prudent provision funding on control of horses". In my county, the control of horses is a serious issue. The week before last, three constituents contacted me about serious welfare issues with single horses and groups of horses. Our local authorities say they do not have the funding to deal with this issue and then I see this statement about: "the prudent provision funding". I requested on two or three occasions for officials from the Department to come in here and be honest with us about how they will deal with horse welfare this winter. We thought they would be in before Christmas but that has been put off until the new year.

When I read that sentence, I can understand why the officials are not coming in to explain what they are doing as regards horse welfare.

Like other speakers, refer to the organic scheme. As much as 70% of applicants were ineligible and there was an underspend of €8 million. Beef farmers have contacted me about the scheme. They told me that no matter what they did to comply with the conditions of the scheme they could not get the necessary points to qualify. Similar to BEAM, a scheme was designed to exclude farmers. Beef farmers have told me that they have spent money on their applications but because of the way the scoring is applied, they could not reach the points necessary - in excess of 71.5 - to qualify for the scheme. In fact, the maximum score that they could get, as beef farmers, was 70 points. It is ridiculous to have a scheme that automatically excludes applicants and that has an underspend.

On the BEAM scheme, beef farming incomes are in crisis and it is in excusable to fail to spend €28 million of Exchequer funding in a year like this. A total of 13,800 farmers who killed cattle were excluded because they had another enterprise on their farms. We made the point at the time that this was wrong. Being forced to reduce one's stocking rate to qualify means many small suckler farmers and young farmers have walked away from the scheme. It defies explanation that that there a failure to distribute €28 million in funding to badly pressed farmers who are under severe income pressure.

Last week, a farmer told me that he sold his cattle at a mart and they were slaughtered within 30 days of him selling them. Unfortunately, the dealer received the money, not the farmer. The conditions of BEAM have failed farmers. The dealer sold the cattle on to a factory using an ordinary herd number. Even though the farmer believed that he would qualify for the scheme, he was excluded. The money, again, went to factory agents instead of the farmer.

There was no mention of additional funding to speed up the processing of licences for the forestry sector. The sector is grinding to a halt, which we have discussed on a number of occasions. Only 50% of the targets for planing have been met while the availability of licences for thinning and felling trees has also ground to a halt. There is a serious need for additional resources to speed up the issuing of licences. The industry is suffering due to the lack of licences for thinning and felling trees.