Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

If I may, I wish to agree with the observations this morning of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, with regard to the bonus culture that is apparent in Irish Water. We await more details but I oppose such a culture, and I suspect everybody in the House does so too.

I welcome the Government announcement on the rural development programme and the billions of euro being put into rural development. It is a very important announcement and it is critical that funding is being spent across a range of issues, with disadvantaged area payments remaining the same, a new environmental scheme in the form of GLAS, grant aid for young farmers, the partial convergence scheme put in place for payments and a co-operation scheme for artisan food producers. That is all very welcome and it is good to have that certainty at the beginning of this year, with the funds in place for the next seven years. I ask the relevant Minister to come to the House to discuss this and also to debate the potential merger of Coillte and Bord na Móna. There is much confusion, disquiet and uncertainty about whether this may or should proceed, and the topic should be raised with the Minister at the earliest possible convenience. I ask this in the context of the good news I have already mentioned.