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

I want to nail this issue because the assertion that we will not deliver on the rural development programme and GLAS commitments is false. This year the Department is paying €40 million under the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, a rural development programme that ran from 2007 until 2013. People joined this five-year programme in 2006 and 2007. The Deputy will recall that a previous Fianna Fáil-led Government suspended access to the rural environmental protection scheme. This year we will pay out €2 million under the REPS which operated under a previous rural development programme. These programmes of investment are constantly rolling over.

I hope the Deputy is not suggesting that when I reopen GLAS and people have the benefit of it in January 2017, they will only participate for three years, as that is not the case. The programme will be of five years' duration. The programmes roll over and the level of funding will remain the same. Despite the suggestion in the title of the rural development programme that it will operate from 2014 until 2020, the Irish rural development programme did not receive Commission approval until May 2015. For this reason, GLAS was opened in October 2015.

These are rolling programmes of investment and we will not leave behind a single penny. The Deputy should realise this because the Department is still paying out under the REP scheme that a Fianna Fáil-led Government suspended in 2008. In addition, we are still paying out under the agri-environment options scheme which featured in the 2007 to 2013 programme. The Deputy's statement was wildly wrong and misleading, but I congratulate him nevertheless as it will garner a good headline.

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