Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

This time last year, we had no AEO scheme. The Minister for Finance allocated funding of €50 million per annum, over a five-year period, in last year's budget. The scheme runs for five years to enable 10,000 applicants to participate in it. We were told a year ago that the new scheme would not even receive 2,000 applications. As I said earlier, in response to questions asked by other Deputies, some 9,236 applicants have joined this scheme.

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