Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

To clarify, I was given €79 million and it was agreed that the existing farm waste management scheme was to have priority to deal with the issue of nitrates. It was, without shadow of a doubt, one of the best schemes ever introduced, besides being flexible and catering for farmers with fewer than 20 livestock units to farmers with investments of over €120,000. It was agreed by both politicians and farmers that we had to deal with the nitrates issue and that this was the most important scheme.

With regard to those farmers who had applications under the farm improvement scheme submitted and stamped before the end of October, they are within the scheme. I hope, once we get through all the applications and ascertain their bona fides — I heard some farmers threw in applications just because they heard the scheme was going to close, whereas others may have been under greater pressure to address various issues — we will be able to provide greater clarity for those applications submitted between 21 and 31 October. Anybody who is within the system and has been accepted and whose application has been stamped will be reviewed but we have await the financial implications and then look at the priorities.

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