Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

The Minister's credibility with the sheep farming community is at an all-time low. Even the €7 million promised for upland farmers has not been paid in full to date, never mind the €27 million promised in May 2007, which was a figment of Fianna Fáil's imagination in the lead-up to the election.

We are where we are in terms of the national economy and its finances because the stock response to any problem is to throw money at it. This is why I am critical of the €54 million sheep scheme announced by the Minister. All it does is throw money at the problem and it has no strategic objective underpinning it and such a provision should have been considered. Since the critical issue in the sheep industry is the free-fall of breeding ewe numbers in recent years, it would have been a desirable objective for the Minister to have indicated to participants in the scheme that one of the objectives over the three years should be to increase ewe breeding numbers by 5%. At least that would have reversed the free-fall and provided a sustainable future for the industry. That is one objective that could have been achieved.

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