Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael)

I call on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to put in place an new agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, for farmers. There has been no scheme for a number of months and it is important that farmers who are exiting REPS 3 and 4 should have a scheme available to them. An environmental scheme has been in place for 18 years in Ireland and this is the first time there is a danger there will not be a scheme. All of those schemes put money into rural communities and create jobs.