William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)

We are again pleading with the Minister in respect of this one area. I know he can say that extra roads have been put in as the result of the change to a requirement for one herd number. That is what would have brought up that issue. Is there anything that can be done? We had a long debate at the local authority to see if we could raise the funds ourselves to try to get the waiting lists down. While six counties sent back money, the other counties were certainly not doing so under any circumstances. I share Senator O'Reilly's concerns and would like anything that could help that scheme.

There is no need to repeat what I said but since the Minister brought it up, I will say that pillar 1 and pillar 2 are hugely important to us. The same is true in agriculture, if the Minister understands. It is the backbone of everything we have at the moment. It is hugely upfront with all the farming organisations to ensure that funding is ring-fenced. If anything happens to that funding, we are all in serious trouble and all the different programmes we speak about are in serious trouble. I urge the Minister to do anything that can be done to ensure that pillar 1 and pillar 2 remain in situ.