Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a few quick questions. It was announced that approximately 500 farmers were joining the new scheme but only 317 joined. Is that not proof that there is something seriously wrong when 10,000 farmers seek to join the REAP scheme and we cannot even get 500 to join the new scheme? Does Mr. Hayes believe the Department has basically not placed enough emphasis on organic farming over the years? There are around 130,000 farmers in the country. Off the top of my head, roughly 1,800 farmers, or around 1.5%, are organic. With all the talk about climate and all the craic that is going on at the moment, should we not be looking at having the guts of 10% organic?

Was the scheme biased in favour of dairy or tillage farmers? Was it not that case that small beef farmers were not really going to get into the scheme? The fees that have to be paid are putting off small farmers. Why is there not a system like the Bord Bia system for quality assurance? Why does it not all come under one umbrella so that someone can come out and do the job without basically charging a lot of money? I cannot understand why we have about five different bodies looking after different things. Farmers are sick of that.

Is the straw chopping pilot not defeating the purpose? Most organic farmers are required to have a 50-50 split. We are going to take 1 million bales and chop them out of the system. Between the different sectors, there will be a clamour for straw. The Department came up with the idea that it would pay farmers to chop the straw rather than encouraging more bedding of cattle, which it would be doing for environmental reasons if it were worried about the environment. Looking at the numbers, does Mr. Hayes not think the number of farmers who have joined the scheme this year is disappointing and represents a failure by the Department in organic farming for a number of years? Why has there not been more of an emphasis placed on securing markets in other countries over the years?