Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. He clearly has a great understanding of the bureaucracy and paperwork that is faced. The sector needs regulation; every sector needs some form of regulation. However, it has to be balanced. I welcome the recent news on the exemption for farms under 10 ha, which will benefit 20,000 farmers. It will be interesting to see how that plays out on the ground. Many farmers will not be exempt and will still face endless reams of paperwork and form-filling.

One of the most frustrating things that comes across is this idea of the goalposts changing with different schemes. That is where I am sensing a lot of frustration. I will give an example of a farmer in my constituency. I am sure the Minister of State has the same issues coming into his constituency office where an "i" has not been dotted or a "t" has not been crossed. We had a farmer who applied for the tillage incentive scheme in 2023. He applied on time and was successful. However, because of reasons completely out of his control, he lost about eight or nine acres of land which he was leasing and the landowner decided to sell. As there was a reduction in the total number of acres he was farming, he no longer qualified for the tillage incentive scheme. That is a massive financial loss for that farmer. To give another example, we know how farmers have been and will be impacted by derogation when the whole country goes to 220 kg N/ha. There is a lack of flexibility within these schemes. A farmer was transporting slurry to another farm in order to come within the derogation stocking rate and so on. Because the farmer receiving the slurry had not signed a particular form on time or whatever, the original farmer was penalised. Farmers are sick of the penalties. There needs to be more flexibility. There needs to be a bit more compassion shown for farmers in these situations. That is all we are asking for here.

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