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

I thank the Minister for his reply. Given the inevitable delays that will arise, even allowing for this shimmy - it is a welcome shimmy, if it comes out - we are still looking at February before GLAS will be announced. If we take into account all of the complexities involved in requiring 30,000 farmers to draw up plans, does the Minister accept it is very unlikely that GLAS money will be paid out next year, even though he has made provision for same in the Estimate? Has he given consideration to a contingency plan for how that money might be paid to farmers legitimately in some other way? The value of direct payments to farmers is falling dramatically.

Second, it is the Minister's intention to introduce a genomics scheme. My understanding, however, is that the EU has raised several principle questions along the lines that the scheme is linked too much with Harvest 2020 and not sufficiently linked with rural development. Is that scheme likely to open in February? If not, we are looking at a huge slice of money farmers were expecting next year but which might not be available.

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