Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to give a commitment that I will speak to the Minister about it. It came up in my meeting with the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, only in the past two weeks. I understand that the Minister and the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, met farmers from the Burren and local representatives on 22 November. I am told that the meeting was constructive and that the work of the Burren programme was acknowledged. Ministers will now reflect on those discussions while work will continue with all the ACRES co-operation project teams to deliver the scheme. It was always the intention to mainstream positive actions from programmes like the Burren programme into a large-scale agri-environment scheme in order to ensure a much larger environmental benefit and a greater number of farmers contributing to environmental goods such as biodiversity and water quality.

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