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

We will take a look at that. I obviously want to spend the full amount of money that we have allocated for the scheme over the six years. We now need to consider whether we can afford to take more farmers in, how we could do that, who the farmers are and whether we should prioritise younger farmers or new entrants.

That is a decision we will make next year when we see how much money we are spending. I want as many suckler beef farmers in this scheme as we can get because it is a really good scheme and I want to ensure we spend the full €300 million on the scheme over its lifetime. We will figure out how best to do that and we will obviously discuss that with farming organisations to ensure they are comfortable with it.

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