Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department is endeavouring to deal with this backlog sequentially, but if there are individual cases where, for particular reasons such as animal welfare, a job needs to be plucked out of the system and brought forward, the Department will look favourably on that. If there are individual cases, I am sure the Deputy would find a willing ear in the Department to deal with them. We are working through this sequentially and we are catching up with the backlog.

I suspect we will not have the type of problem Deputy McConalogue alluded to because anecdotally I am hearing that a number of people who have approval under TAMS are postponing investments for which they have approval because of the difficulty in the commodity markets, particularly in the dairy sector. Therefore, I do not expect that problem of many approved farmers chasing a limited number of contractors to occur in the short term. I do not anticipate it but it is an area that will require constant vigilance and I assure the Deputy that will be forthcoming from me and from my Department.

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