Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It will be concluded in time for the next opening and I will make a decision in advance of that. That is what I have requested. There is massive work going on in the Department. The comment the Deputy made at the end of her response was a rather flippant one. There are a record number of applications in at the moment for TAMS 3, which shows the appetite for on-farm investment. We are working through getting approvals for them. We have front-loaded the applications for work that needs to be done this autumn and winter to make sure people can get on with it and can get those approvals.

How farmers and the State spend the money is important, particularly in really long-term investments like investment in dribble bar low-emission slurry spreading machines or trailing shoes. We must ensure we are spending it wisely and appropriately because they will be around for a long time. We took a pause on the research available because we wanted to make sure it was actually achieving the objective it set out to achieve. I will conclude the analysis and we will make a decision based on the scientific evidence and other considerations as well.

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