Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of quick questions. I will follow on from Deputy Fitzmaurice on the forestry issue. Many people out there are really frustrated at present. I have been contacted by quite a few people over the last number of weeks about how timber from the sawmills has gone out of control, specifically with the manufacturer. That would be timber for houses, timber products or whatever. This is a real issue on which an awful lot more can be done. Those people are all blaming the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on felling licences and planting and everything like that, even the nurseries. It is everybody. This is a real challenge. I encourage the Minister to go back to his officials and do whatever can be done.

On the issue of the flagship rural development scheme, I met with the IFA and other farming organisations over the recent period. This is a meaningful scheme in which there are real returns and benefits for farmers. That is if we do not have a repeat of some of the outgoing schemes, where people pull out and leave after a while because they do not get the financial benefits. If one goes back to the blueprint of the old rural environment protection scheme that was probably one of the most successful environmental schemes.

I understand the Horse and Greyhound Fund was raised but that is under programme C so I will leave it until then. I previously raised the knowledge transfer scheme with the Minister, which I know is no longer there, and similarly, the early retirement scheme. What is there to replace the knowledge transfer scheme? Does the Minister have any plans to reintroduce an early retirement scheme?