Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Against the background of the deterioration in public finances, my approach in preparing the 2009 Estimates for the Department was to focus available resources on the measures that allow us to maintain and grow the productive capacity of the agrifood sector.

There has been a high level of investment in developing this sector in recent years, with the commitment of significant financial resources to areas such as the rural environment scheme, where the rates of grant had been increased by 17%, the new suckler cow scheme and the farm waste management scheme. Expenditure for the farm waste management scheme in 2008 will exceed €375 million following the recent provision of an additional €195 million. The first payments under the new suckler cow scheme will issue later this year.

As I have chosen to protect expenditure in certain areas, expenditure in other areas has to be curtailed. I have made provision of €56.7 million to meet current commitments in the early retirement from farming and the young farmers' installation aid scheme. This level of funding means that, for the present, new applications for these schemes are suspended.

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