Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

The weather conditions this year were the worst for 70 years. I find it extremely difficult to understand how the Minister could claim that in the negotiations that took place two years ago, weather conditions were taken into account. We must be realistic and admit that this is an extraordinary situation. This was proven when the Ministers for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government reached an agreement on a two-week extension to the farm slurry spreading scheme, followed by a further extension. Admittedly, that does not compare with what happened in Northern Ireland and clearly the Green Party Minister had control at the end of the day.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food thanked the European Commission for agreeing to the aforementioned extension. He also thanked the Commission for acceding to other requests from Ireland in the recent past. He is obviously pushing an open door. Why will he not apply for an extension to this scheme? There is no justification, other than that the Government is trying to save money. The Department wants to make sure this scheme is blocked at the earliest possible date to reduce the amount of money spent on it.

The Minister mentioned that 20% was the normal fallout with such schemes, which may have been the case in the past. However, we are in a new situation now and farmers have to deal with this issue. They must improve their slurry tanks and animal accommodation in order to meet the nitrates directive. Farmers who do not complete this work are likely to lose their entitlements and go out of business.

The Acting Chairman, Deputy Johnny Brady, has a fine record in mediating on behalf of the IFA. He chaired a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which unanimously agreed to ensure that the Minister got the message on this issue. I do not know if the committee ever received a reply from the Minister. Will the IFA continue to include Deputy Brady in slots in its publications because it has been let down badly by him on this occasion?

My constituency of Cavan-Monaghan is no different to others. Approximately 51% of farmers have completed the necessary work, 11% are halfway there, another 11% have just started, 3% are intending to proceed, 7% are not intending to proceed and the final 17% do not know what their position is because they do not know if they can complete the work or obtain the necessary finance. That is the best independent evidence I can get on the current situation.

The scheme, which nobody on this side of the House would condemn, is exceptionally good and was absolutely necessary given that the Government failed for 13 years to sort out issues relating to the nitrates directive.

I would laugh at Deputy Noel Treacy were it not for the fact that the issue is so serious. He went back 15 or 20 years and spoke about what happened in the past. The farm improvement scheme introduced only last year was supposed to run for five years but was dropped in seven weeks. Thousands of farmers have submitted applications for that scheme which have not even been processed. Deputy Margaret Conlon compared this scheme to one that operates in Northern Ireland. However, she failed to take into account what has been done in Northern Ireland over a long number of years. In that context, she was not comparing like with like.

The farm retirement scheme, the young farmers' installation scheme, area aid payments and the new suckler scheme were all cut back by this Government as soon as things got difficult. I spoke to a young farmer this morning who has invested heavily in the farm waste management scheme. He did so on the understanding that his father would be eligible for money under the farm retirement scheme and that he would receive money under the installation aid scheme but both have now been dropped. Where does his future lie?

We have heard a lot about the great job that Fianna Fáil has done for farmers. I urge the Minister to take some degree of responsibility and to extend the scheme for at least a few weeks, but preferably a few months, to allow people to ensure they have a future in farming.

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