Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government includes commitments to "prioritise the rollout of the Young Farmers Scheme, the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme and give continued priority for young farmers and new entrants under the National Reserve" and to "support the agricultural education sector in responding to the demand and ambitions of new students, to ensure the sector continues to attract high calibre entrants to the agricultural workforce". Young farmers who have applied to start green certificate courses at the Teagasc training centre in my home town of Ballymote later this year have been told that those courses have been cancelled and that there will be no such courses in 2018. I understand that nationally, there are 600 young farmers waiting to do these courses. At a time when the Brexit juggernaut is thundering down the road towards us, we need to bear in mind that agriculture is one of the industries that will be most affected by Brexit. It has never been more important to train young farmers to try to keep alive an industry that employs over 200,000 people in this country.

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