Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am engaged with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform around what will be required to deliver a scheme. That will become clear whenever we publish the application criteria and the detail around it, and not until then. What is clear at this point is the commitment from me to drive this forward and to deliver on it, as well as to deliver on the promise that I made to the forgotten farmers of Ireland, which was that if I got into government I would deliver on this. That is why I went into government. I want to be in government to make differences such as this. There is complexity to it and that is why it is taking time. The officials have been working diligently on it and it will now step out. It will take a bit of time once the applications are open to process it, because quite a bit of administration will be required to work our way through that. However, let there be no doubt that the scheme will be in place, and the farmers will at long last get recognition of the fact that they did not get a fair crack of the whip when installation aid, etc, was interrupted and taken away and they no longer had the opportunity to avail of it.

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