Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister agree that for most farmers this will be an incredibly difficult year but for some farmers it is an utter disaster? Some farmers lost all their silage while others could not make it. Does the Minister not agree that some form of assistance should have been given on an emergency basis for extreme cases? The total cost of emergency assistance would be literally a margin of error within the total Department's budget.

The Minister is making a virtue out of something that happens every year, namely, the 50% first payment of the single farm payment.

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