Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's constituency neighbours my own and he will know the importance of the agricultural sector to the mid-west, to Limerick and to my constituency. There is in excess of 5,900 farms in County Limerick, of which 2,500 are less than 30 hectares with an average farm size of 35 hectares. We rely heavily on farming as a livelihood and many farm families rely on the income derived from farming. They are under huge pressure, as the Minister knows. The greatest issue in farming now is uncertainty about Brexit, Mercosur and the other extraneous factors such as the loan sale in Permanent TSB which will affect many farmsteads. There is also the issue of insurance costs. All these outside factors feed in. If tonight's motion does anything, I would like to be able to tell farmers in County Limerick, who rely heavily on the suckler sector because we have a lot of marginal land especially in west Limerick, where the income derived from it is crucial that the Minister could support the €200 payment and carry out the review of the rural development programme. The underspend in relation to GLAS is 78%, the TAMS has a 92% underspend and the hen harrier designated land has a 100% underspend, which I know has to kick off. It is of great importance to so many farmers in west Limerick.

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