Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I expected this to be one of the questions on which there would be agreement. I am referring to people who fell between stools and who could not avail of supports others were able to avail of.

We all know the issues concerning farm demographics. Farmers will talk about the difficulty and the fact that so many of them are particularly old. In an awful lot of cases, their own kids do not want to undertake farming. It is absolutely right to give the necessary support to those who made the steps and did everything correctly. We are constantly talking about ensuring the sustainability of the family farm in Ireland and making things worthwhile for new farmers.

I am somewhat worried. I can accept all the issues concerning logistics. The Minister made promises regarding this over a considerable period, including at a Macra conference in October and even at an IFA summit in January, but we will need to see action soon as possible.

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