Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

This is about the farm schemes again; it is a pre-budget submission from Deputy Moynihan. The answer is the same as the one I gave earlier. There will be reductions in expenditure, and I have been frank about that since the week I took office.

Currently, we are lucky to be in charge of an industry that is expanding. Agriculture and agri-food have been the big good news story for the past six months. Unfortunately, that does not disguise the fact that there will be two difficult budgets in a row, with the first more difficult than the second. My Department must undertake its fair share of the reductions in expenditure that are required of all Departments. The Deputy will be familiar with the four year budgetary commitment made under the previous Government and which this Government is committed to implementing. Even though agriculture is a performing sector, we will still have to apply reductions in expenditure in the agriculture budget.

The political challenge for me is to work with the farming organisations, Opposition spokespeople and my party colleagues - and there is a great deal of talent in Fine Gael in the agriculture area at present - to find ways to reduce expenditure that do not damage the growth story of agriculture and that protect vulnerable sectors within agriculture that are not benefitting in income terms from a strong harvest, strong prices and good yields. For that reason I have repeatedly said I will do everything I can to protect the rate of payment in disadvantaged area payments and to support vulnerable sectors within agriculture such as, for example, suckler beef, which is vulnerable to an expanding and growing dairy sector.

At present, 50% of our beef comes from the dairy sector and 50% comes from suckler herds. The high end quality product generally comes from suckler herds. We must try to keep that ratio intact which means we must try to support high quality suckler farming. I will be as open as I can be in the build up to the budget. When we make decisions, they will be based on trying to be consistent with the targets set in Food Harvest 2020, as well as protecting vulnerable families and sectors in agriculture.

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