Ms Maria Dunne:

The capital investment scheme for the processing and marketing of agricultural products is co-financed between the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and is administered by Enterprise Ireland. There was €100 million in funding for the scheme, which allows meat and dairy processing companies to continue to build resilience, become more competitive and so help to support the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the agriculture sector.

The initial drawdown was less than initially expected mainly due to the recent challenges facing the sector and the related uncertainty, which can affect decisions on large investments, such as those covered by the scheme. My understanding is the full €100 million was allocated by Enterprise Ireland to projects but there has not been a significant drawdown to date. However, the full amount of funding has been allocated-----