Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Farmers out there would like to understand that the Government has their back in respect of what deal we get out there. They want to know that if the deal is not everything we want - usually there is a bit of compromise and it may not be everything we want in every area - the Government will at least have a commitment to make every effort to ensure the family farm is protected along with all of the environmental schemes we have. There have been many discussions about ACRES, and the failings in all of that, and all of difficulties that come with it. Any future schemes that come out must be schemes for which, in some way or other, the work is done in advance. My problem is that every time a scheme comes out, there seems to be the same problem: an IT problem, a problem with this or a problem with that. In fairness to the officials in the Department that all of us deal with on a regular basis - we all ring the hotlines to try to get issues sorted for people - they do their very best. Every time a scheme comes out, it always seems to have these shortcomings, failings and problems. Can we work to ensure that cannot be the situation in the future, for example through the development of future proofing? No matter what scheme it is, we must have the IT systems in place and we must have the advance technology to ensure we do not run into these problems as we move forward.