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

Inspections over the next three or four weeks are not an issue because they are covered by force majeure rules, regardless of whether the Minister agrees with that view. With regard to the 2014 applications for single farm payments, however, if land is lost to the sea or cannot be foraged because it is covered in boulders, will farmers have to adjust the acreage of their land accordingly? If fences and walls have been knocked down and have not been replaced, will farmers be penalised under both REPS and the single farm payment scheme?

I welcome the Minister's comments about fishermen's pots. Does he provide money for coastal protection other than in urban areas? Traditionally this was addressed by piers and slipways.

I suggested to his colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, that in regard to rebuilding fences and, in particular, stone walls, she should employ more people on the rural social scheme and provide money for materials to reinstate them because they would be impossible to reinstate for many farmers. Is the Minister willing to talk to her about that possibility?

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