Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The premium increase is connected to the partnership talks. I was involved in its proposal and was very supportive of it. As with the Deputy, we would like to see it come through as soon as possible. With regard to practical considerations, we set a closing date of 30 September because we were coming to the end of this programme at the end of 2006. We received a surge of applications, which from our point of view is very positive.

We have deployed staff from other areas, and staff are working overtime and on Saturdays to deal with the increase. I hope that will bring about increased planting in 2007. The conversion rate is not always as we would like after we give approval, but it is our hope that this surge in applications will produce an increase in planting for 2007. With regard to the target, the more planting that takes place, the better. We will continue to increase the bar.

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