Mr. Conor O'Mahony:

The Deputy asked about pedigree ceilings. One of the subgroups of the TB forum is a financial group under the chairmanship of Gerry Kiely. It has looked at the funding and supports available under the TB programme. One of the issues we looked at was the ceiling for animals under the scheme. The previous ceiling for pedigree cows was €3,000. This has been increased to €5,000 for pedigree cows and in-calf heifers. This figure was arrived at by examining the valuations submitted in recent years. We are conscious there are some very high-value pedigree animals that were valued higher than the ceiling of €3,000 and were not being fully compensated. This ceiling has risen to €5,000 since 1 February. We had to update our IT systems and backdated payments will be issued to anyone who did not avail of it.