Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Farmers lost money. It is a small number and it is easily identified. The Minister knows, from his area maps, exactly which people sold crops. It is easy to identify how much money these farmers have lost from their sales figures. We have become so careful that, when 300 people have a problem and a small number get money without which they could not survive, we worry more about the few who might not absolutely need it. One cannot over-refine schemes. Giving loans to people who already have that problem is no good. It is no solution because telling people to invest even more money means they will have to put up matching capital but they do not have the money.

I accept that it might be hard to persuade EU colleagues because the EU is a broad church and the weather conditions were different so doing it under the de minimisrules is probably the way to go. Some €86 million was unspent in the Department last year and when the dairy farmers had difficulty the State came up with €17 million. All we are looking for is €4 million. It is three months too late but, as they say in Irish, is fearr go déireanach ná go brách.

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