Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senators who have spoken on this debate and wish to reflect on some of the key issues raised. A number of schemes are not permitted to be index linked under EU rules, including the single farm payment and the farm retirement scheme. I gave my consideration to the issues raised in a report on early retirement produced by Deputy Wilkinson on behalf of the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food. The report recommended greater involvement at a technical level between the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Agriculture and Food, so that we could avoid overpayments where people reached pension aged and qualified for State pensions. It also recommended that we increase the amounts available under the early retirement schemes and increase the new early retirement scheme in order to balance it with the installation aid increase, a measure which younger farmers have vociferously supported.

The issue of farm consolidation has been of major concern and I thank the Minister of Finance for his support in committing a significant level of Exchequer funding to this agreement. He has worked with me to examine the issues which have arisen from farm consolidation, long-term leasing and taxation policies. Measures have already been introduced in this regard in the previous budget and we will continue to work towards our targets through the forthcoming budget. I am sure the Estimates announced by the Minister this afternoon will be music the ears of the Opposition. I can predict, without a shadow of a doubt, further increases in my own Vote for the farming sector. These increases are indicative of the esteem which this Government has for farming.

Fine Gael Senators spoke about crises such as a drift from farming and a lack of interest in the sector. The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development gave an answer to this in the Dáil when she said that if we continued to use this type of language, it would not be surprising that people will continue to lose interest in farming because we are being negative rather than supportive.