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

Let me just be clear. When we launched the scheme we probably should have had more information meetings earlier. I accept that. I attended a number of the meetings myself. While there were a lot of people who were concerned about elements of the scheme, I do not think those concerns were well founded in many cases. We have managed to clarify a lot of those things.

I have written to everybody in the scheme outlining the scheme, its requirements, how it is going to work and how we are going to help farmers to make sure it works for them. We will spend about €44 million or €45 million on the scheme this year. One of the commitments I gave to all farming organisations was that we would get a lot of payments out this year on the schemes. We now have a lot of farmers looking to come in to the scheme who did not decide to enter it at the start but are now reassured by the messages that have gone out. They want to be part of the scheme and cannot get in. There are also some farmers deciding that maybe it is not for them. That is fine too; it happens with every scheme.

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