Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Deputies who spoke and contributed to the debate for their widespread support for the motion. I thank Deputy Cahill and Senator Paul Daly, who worked alongside me as part of the agricultural team driving these issues at meetings of the agriculture committee.

In his response, the Minister indicated he does not wish to break any contract with farmers on rural development programme schemes and certainly Fianna Fáil is at one with him in this regard. All commitments should be honoured and followed through, and we believe this is very important. For a man who does not want to break any contracts in the rural development programme schemes, unfortunately as a Minister he has shown himself to be very willing to break his Government's promises on the overall spend there would be on those schemes. The biggest area where there is an underspend is GLAS, which is why we tabled a motion calling for a review.

I have the press release from when the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Coveney, announced the GLAS scheme. We do not need to go any further than the headline, which states "Coveney Announces €1.4Bbn GLAS Scheme to Open Monday". That was in February 2015. An explanatory note at the end outlines how the money was to be allocated to GLAS over the lifetime of the programme period to 2020. We are now four years into the seven-year rural development programme, and it is quite clear at this stage from replies to parliamentary questions I have received that the maximum spend there can be under the GLAS scheme, given the participants and the amount of time it has been opened, is €1 billion. This brings it to 2022, when everybody who is in GLAS is to be out of it. That is €400 million less than the former Minister promised farmers. Our motion calls for this underspend, the promise and the commitments on other rural development programme schemes to be assessed and reviewed, because it is time the Government's bluff was called on this, given the fact it is failing to deliver on the promises it made. It got the headlines at the time, with €1.4 billion for GLAS, but it will deliver €400 million less than this. We will hold the Minister to this.

There will be an underspend in many of the schemes, and as part of this motion we are seeking that underspend be put on the table after which we will assess how it can best be spent and how the beef data genomics programme can be increased as part of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is crucial that we find a mechanism to deliver €200 for suckler cows. The Minister is teeing us up to accept 70,000 tonnes of beef in the Mercosur agreement, and the Minister did not even mention this agreement in his contribution. The Minister needs to go to Europe to seek adjustment funding for the impact this will have on our beef sector, being the most exposed agrisector in Europe.

With regard to Brexit, we need to see additional funds which recognise the potential impact it might have. This is something the Minister needs to set as an objective to try to achieve it. We will work with the Minister. All Members in the House are agreed on this being an objective, but in the short term we need to see the beef data genomics programme increased and have the rural development programme underspend assessed. Under the CAP we have to find a mechanism to support the many farming families throughout the country who need that support to be able to sustain the Irish countryside. I commend the motion to the House and I thank everyone for their contributions.

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