William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming today and I welcome Ms Dowling, Ms Hanlon and especially Gordon Conroy. It is not often we have two people from the one town. We will leave that as it is.

First, as regards the €3,000 ceiling for the cows, many farmers out there are owed north of €3,000 and I think it is the Minister's responsibility to pay them. I have been at a couple of meetings since and when a deal is done, as the Minister knows, a deal is done and the value of an animal is the value. You cannot be left short, and none of those people were told before the animal left the yard, "We are not paying you. We have a cap of €3,000." The Minister answered that question.

My next question is about the money for the overrun of the TB. I just hope that the Minister will be able to get that from the Minister, Jack Chambers, because we cannot see a situation where we start to cut back within the ministerial budget at all. These are unusual ones that happen with the overrun. This year we are coming again from what we are after discussing a few minutes ago. It could be double or triple that this year if the trend stays going the same way, so it is very important now to build that in and explain to Jack Chambers what the position is.

On the suckler carbon efficiency programme, SCEP, is the Minister proposing to give an extra €25 for the coming year? It looks to me that we will be down substantially on the agricultural environmental schemes. Is the Minister proposing to give a €6 increase in the sheep scheme? I want to talk to the Minister about the tillage sector, but I ask him to answer those questions quickly because our time will run out.