Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is crucial that the drive to improve the payments being made continues. This is a decent start. We would have liked to have seen more but I acknowledge and welcome it as a good start. I have been clear with the Minister that, from a Fianna Fáil perspective, we would be flexible regarding the way in which the payment would be delivered to the suckler cow sector, the key point being that the payment is forthcoming and that we see not only a message going out but a demonstration in terms of funds that there is an understanding of the pressure the sector is under and that it would be supported.

Can the Minister confirm today that the funding for this scheme will not be taken from other unspent funds in the rural development programme, RDP, and that it will be additional funding? Will he commit today that he has seen the light and will work towards the achievement of a €200 annual payment per suckler cow? He indicated he was not willing to do it in this budget and that he would seek to provide for it in the future and in the next Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. It is great we have got to the stage where he has come around to introducing this scheme and starting off this process here today? Will he commit that this is his policy and that this work will continue in the context of the next budget and future ones towards the achievement of a €200 annual payment per sucker cow? Fianna Fáil will be driving forward to achieve that. I acknowledge the strong support and campaigning for this from the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and the Irish Farmers Journal, which have highlighted the need for this support in the budget. It is important that work continues and that additional progress is made.

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