Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is conveniently ignoring the fact that the funding available under Pillar 2 for the RDP is a finite resource. We offered the people who were in the AEOS the opportunity to make the transition to give them the greater certainly of the five-year GLAS contract. Some of them made this transition and others chose not to do so. I understand that some of them now claim that they were unaware of what was involved. I am acutely conscious of that in the context of the transitional arrangements. As part of the ongoing negotiations, consideration is being given to the possibility of opening up new schemes to those who are outside the existing contractual arrangements, which the Department will honour.

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