Dr. Anne Finnegan:

I thank members for their questions. In response to Deputy Penrose's question on the horticulture sector, I tend to agree with Dr. Ailish Byrne that it is small in terms of the number of operators and the debt levels in the sector. I think that is the reason it is not featuring in the overall numbers and is not coming out strongly, but that is not to say those in this sector have not availed of support under the scheme from AIB. On the question of working capital for 2017, it was legitimately part of the scheme eligibility criteria and farmers presented with applications for that purpose, and where their applications were successful, we honoured that and met the needs of others who had pent up demand for working capital.

In response to Deputy McConalogue's question on the tillage sector, we worked with the tillage farmers who were affected on a localised basis in and outside the scheme. I cannot speak on the figures because I have not looked at the breakdown along the west coast and in particular branches. That is an ongoing tillage sector. Dr. Byrne is correct that the challenges the tillage sector and some operators faced last year were more pronounced given the weather difficulties they experienced. There are strategic challenges for the tillage sector. This is the fourth year of depressed prices, which is putting significant pressure on tillage operators, particularly those who are working on large scale conacre and trying to service it on an annual basis. When one looks at the stocks to use ratio internationally, in the past we would have said that a weather event would sort out the problems with the level of stock build ups that are there, not that we wished for a weather event in any part of the world. That is not the case at present. It would take three or four weather events to sort out the type of stock build ups that we are seeing in the tillage sector globally. We are seeing the impact of the access to technology, particularly genetically modified organisms, GMOs, across the world. Every year the tillage harvest globally is high and that is putting pressure on Irish operators. Apart from the impact of the weather on certain individual tillage farmers last year and outside of what this scheme could deliver for the tillage sector, there are wider strategic challenges for the tillage sector and, indeed, for the livestock sectors because we need feed security in Ireland in order to sustain the growth in the livestock sector.