Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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This is a bit confusing for a fella like me, but anyway. Like Deputy Aird, these forms and things that have to be filled out are very confusing for farmers and they should not be that way. It is a fright to God that fellas get fouled up. I have fellas who were advised to go into partnership. Since 2023, they have not been paid their ACRES money because they did so. They were advised by certain people to do that, and there is little help coming from that quarter now to get them out of the knot they are in and get the bit of money they are waiting for. The likes of me is chiselled about it every day.

It is hard to get the witnesses' story and digest it in a few minutes like this, but it would only be fair and reasonable that they should get the information from the Department and not through Teagasc. I cannot see that the witnesses expect to be trained given they are private operators. They were saying Teagasc staff are trained, but Teagasc is part of the Department. I do not know how anyone private could expect to be paid by the State. I must thrash that out myself a bit further. The witnesses should be getting the same information as Teagasc at the same time. The witnesses do a good job. They said that they have 55,000 customers.

I do not know how many clients Teagasc has but it is clear that neither of them could do the job on their own. We need more of these entities. I do not know if it is done the same way but how many do farmers require? They need any number of them, I suppose. Can the witnesses tell me how many farmers are in need of advice or anticipated as being in need of advice in the Twenty-six Counties at the present time?