Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Question No. 1 concerns the response to the fodder crisis in recent weeks that has also been an issue throughout the winter. We had a one-and-a-half-hour debate on it last night, which we will continue tonight. The Deputy opposite posed some questions last night that I will answer today and I think he might find the answers useful.

As I outlined, we are doing a number of things, including a transport subsidy scheme that has been extended for a week and that will facilitate the importation after the Friday deadline of fodder that has been purchased outside Ireland this week. We have an ongoing emergency animal welfare system whereby farmers can ring up a lo-call number and if they cannot afford to feed their animals or cannot find fodder to do so, we will help them to ensure no animal anywhere in the country starves. We spoke about the fertiliser initiative that co-operatives are facilitating by providing interest-free credit for this month to encourage farmers to get fertiliser out there. Teagasc is focusing its advisers on trying to get grass growing as quickly as possible to make up for lost ground. We also spoke about banks' and co-operatives' making credit available, the initiatives that are there, which are constructive and positive, and farm payments, particularly the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS.

I am glad to give the House an update on REPS 4 payments, which Deputy Ó Cuív raised last night. There is no delay in respect of REPS 4 payments for 2012. To date, just over 29,200 of the remaining 30,200 REPS 4 participants have been paid a total of €166 million in respect of the 2012 application period. Over the past week, over 700 REPS participants received a total of €2.2 million in respect of their REPS 4 2012 payment. A further 220 will be paid just under €1 million this week, bringing the total paid close to €170 million under the REPS 4 scheme. This represents a significant improvement on last year's figures, with further payments continuing to issue on an ongoing basis as queries are resolved. In other words, we are genuinely trying to fast-track payments as best we can this year, be they AEOS or REPS. We are well ahead of where we were last year in terms of getting payments out and will continue to put pressure on because I know the stress that many farmers have been under, particularly over the past month, and this continues in many farmyards. Getting payments out on time or early certainly helps to relieve that stress.

See this speech in context