Mr. Paul Savage:

In respect of the 60% not being reachable or enough to support farmers, the overarching point here is, again, we need to manage the budget very carefully. Increasing the percentage of grant aid we allocate to people would have budgetary implications for the entire scheme. This places particular constraints on whether we consider increasing grant rates, which are quite generous in certain categories, and go from the standard 40% up to 60%, as the Deputy will know well.

The same consideration comes into it when we talk about extra schemes and other possible investment items for water and such. We keep under constant review the range of items supported under TAMS. We are always looking at new technology and developments to see what is possible and feasible for support but we must balance that all the time against what is the available budget. We must do this within the clear parameters we have under the CSP up to 2027. Those issues are-----