Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

Farmers stepped up to the plate in their thousands; in fact, 17,400 of them did so. The Minister failed to provide adequate funding in the budget for that. A total of €125 million in 2009 leaves us short of €105 million to pay even the 40% to which the Minister refers.

We need clarity from this debate. We do not want a situation where farmers are being asked to live horse and get grass. They did that for the farm waste management scheme by completing their works before 31 December, yet the Minister has hung them out to dry. He failed them with farm waste management, he is failing them in REPS 4, he failed them with the suspension of the farm investment scheme before that, installation aid, the early retirement scheme and disadvantaged area payments.

Farmers deserve a fair break, and Deputy Burton raised an interesting issue here. Why is it that farmers have been singled for the deferral of liabilities? If colleagues of the Minister for Finance in Dublin Castle were asked to take a deferred payment on their legal fees for three years, we would be in here hot to trot and would have it resolved before the morning. These farmers have invested hundreds of millions of euro in their farms to enable them legally to continue in business. There is no additional income stream for farmers arising out of this commitment to investment. It only legally enables them to continue with their business. By virtue of the Minister's failure to provide adequate funding for this grant, he has reneged on his legal responsibility. The Minister is seeking, through this Bill, to weasel his way out of that legal commitment. He gives us meaningless words, saying he hopes to conclude a deal with the banks. This is the last chance saloon for a legal resolution of this issue and I ask the Minister to improve on his last offer.

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