William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I will only be one second, that is all. The Department must have been taken by surprise when the previous Minister for agriculture had to announce €30 million at such short notice to encourage people to put seeds in the ground, as he said himself. That was the crisis situation. If he did not do that, there was going to be maybe hundreds of acres of land left idle. It was just not going to pay farmers to do it. That is the crisis situation we came from.