Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are 46,000 currently in it. All 46,000 who applied were accepted. They applied at the end of last year and this is the first full year for that 46,000. It is currently open and due to close in just over a week for tranche 2. Within the CAP strategic plan, there is a funding allocation over five years to be able to facilitate a total of 50,000. That CAP strategic plan has many other measures and schemes which are really important too. It is funded to a tune that we have never seen before. We have increased the funding from the State for those schemes by 50%. Obviously there are budgetary limits on it. Any change to that would require changes to our financial projections and our five-year budgeting, not just one-year budgeting. While the officials and advisers made a great effort to make sure we could get all 46,000 applicants in this year, that figure was within the 50,000 figure that we had profiled over five years. Any change to the 50,000 figure would require changes to the financial projections from my Department that I would have to get agreed with the Department of public expenditure. Obviously, I would love to do that. I keep pushing that as hard as I can but the national Exchequer has its limits too. I will keep engaging. I would like to do anything that I can here. I expect this particular tranche to be oversubscribed. I only have the funding to go to 50,000.