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

With regard to the budget for Teagasc, I presume the Minister will put an emphasis on making sure plenty of research is done. In fairness to the agency, I believe some of the initial figures it is doing on cows are way less than what the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has loved shouting about down through the years. Does the Minister make sure that whatever research budgets are required are in place? We need to get up to speed with stuff fairly quickly. Many figures being used as default on our inventory or climate stuff would be coming out of other countries, which is not a help to us.

I will not say I am an expert on fisheries. Could the Minister explain something about the fisherman who took the funding to get out of fishing? I cannot fathom one of the things that was in it. They basically had to cut up or destruct the boat. Why would that be? Surely, be it South Africa or somewhere, it would be better that someone, somewhere is paddling it rather than just cutting up a good boat. Why is that clause in the scheme?