Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Deputy's comments on the World Food Programme. It keeps a degree of context on the scale of challenges that are being faced. It is one challenge to which Ireland is glad to respond. It is part of a three-year cycle of commitments we have made to the World Food Programme.

With regard to the specialist food producer scheme, we are focusing on the artisan food sector. The scheme has yet to be designed and that is why the savings are currently there. We recognise that the artisan food sector is part of the colour of Ireland's food offering and tourism product. There is great interest now in provenance and the specialist food sector has a great story to tell. The sector is also putting its foot in the export market but it is substantially for the domestic consumer. It is quite a significant sector and the scheme is primarily geared towards the artisan food sector.

On the issue of the sheep welfare scheme applicants, a simple calculation was done. On the basis of there being 2.5 million ewes in the State the scheme was estimated to cost €25 million. For one reason or another, despite the best efforts of the Department to advertise the availability of the scheme, and the despite the fact that the scheme was widely recognised as simple to avail of, not all sheep farmers who were eligible for the scheme applied for it. That is a disappointment. The scheme will reopen next year and will have a provision for new applicants. Maybe word of mouth might see the uptake increase. The saving is there because it was demand led. We budgeted for the maximum, with everybody participating. We have made an 85% payment on it. This leaves us with 85% of the number of applicants. Having budgeted for €25 million the balancing payment will issue in 2018.