Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

The reality is that Teagasc has had to reduce its budget by €15 million. Two out of every three future appointments to Teagasc have been frozen. This is the only advisory service in the State and that is what the Minister has imposed on it. The Minister denied that €150 million was returned as unspent under the REP scheme because of the failure of farmers to get involved. They are leaving the scheme.

The Minister will be remembered positively because foot and mouth disease was kept out of the State. The Department, the agricultural agencies and, in particular, the hard work of the farming community won the day for him.

The lobby that ensured in May that the Minister was restored to the Department of Agriculture and Food did a disservice of monumental proportions to agriculture. We need a change, we need new thinking and we need a forward plan for agriculture. This Government, and the Minister in particular, has provided nothing of the kind in the last 12 years. Does the Minister ever aspire to introducing change? I hope so. The Department of Agriculture and Food must be changed. It should be moved from Dublin to rural Ireland and there it will see the policies that have failed.

Will the Minister verify that the forestry premia and grants under partnership contracts will be revoked? If that is the case, what will be the consequences? I want to see change and I want to hear the Minister respond.WP leading adjustment