Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I am aware of the resource issues as I meet Professor Gerry Boyle regularly. There are particular pressures on every State organisation in the current financial climate.

We have a good agricultural college infrastructure across the country. For example, a person starting in Ballyhaise can continue with a food degree at Dundalk Institute of Technology. While we want to robustly resource Teagasc, there are pressures on every State organisation.

I am an advocate of having a cut-off point for the single farm payment. However, when the payment was first established many EU member states were against having a cut-off point. I am not an advocate of the payment for those with large resources, tracts of land or herds of cattle.

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