Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

While the establishment of the cashflow support agricultural loan scheme is welcome, I suggest it is a kind of patchwork solution. More concrete measures are needed. The grant payments that were mentioned by the Minister of State are always delayed. It is incredible. Grant payments to the mushroom industry always come at the very end. When this matter was considered by the agriculture committee, complaints were made about the slow payment of grants. Given that the mushroom industry is located in rural Ireland, including areas where people would never qualify for any other schemes, and in light of the importance of providing work for rural people, surely the rendering of temporary assistance to the industry should be considered to help it to get over this problem and to secure its future. Perhaps a temporary reduction in employers' PRSI from 8.5% to 4.25%, as was done in 2012 and 2013 to assist other industries, could be considered as a way of helping this industry to get over the hump in the interim.

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