Mr. Patrick Joyce:

When the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, first came out, it was capped at 30,000 participants. With a bit of pushing and shoving, it went up to 36,000. I do not believe policymakers are taking this seriously. If they want to be serious about it, they should let it be open to everyone so that they can be paid for the work they do. They should make the funding available for the long term.