Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

That is per hectare, which works out at approximately €18 per acre. While the beet industry was being decimated in recent years, we had an opportunity to promote the production of bio-fuels and to help tillage farmers, but the Government dithered and has displayed a lack of confidence in the system.

Many elements in the package are welcome, but it needs fine tuning and a more positive approach and presentation, namely, it must be examined from the farmers' point of view. When the farming partners sat down with the Minister to negotiate the package, the deal succeeded in driving a wedge between farming organisations. Those who stayed in the talks are disappointed with what they got. It seems that to get most of what one wanted, the best tactic would have been to get up and leave. From a farming point of view, this is negative.

Of everything outlined in the package, the most welcome element is the increase in the suckler herd allocation, but the matter of suckler herds creates another difficulty for farmers that the Minister undertook to address, that is, bureaucratic red tape. The amount of documentation involved has driven farmers mad. Senator Moylan is laughing, but he agrees with me in his heart. Similar to a Deputy, a farmer needs not just a secretary, but also a researcher because of this form-filling bureaucracy. For the sake of farmers and to keep them in rural Ireland, the Minister must deal with some of these issues and, by taking on board our suggestions, make this a great package.