Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo the sentiments of Senator Martin with regard to Israel and the Gaza Strip, and all that is happening. The cruel things that happened at the weekend were hard to comprehend in any way.

I wish to dwell for a few moments on the budget. I am sure that many people are sick and tired at this stage of hearing about the budget but I wish to rebut the argument that the agriculture budget was reduced. The agriculture budget was not reduced. Let me explain. There is a budget of almost €2 billion there. Last year €250 million, which is one quarter of one billion euro, was added to agriculture to deal with Brexit. That was a once-off measure. It is very unfair for anybody to be putting it out there that the agriculture budget was reduced. It was not. I will briefly go through some of the elements in the budget. There is €700 million for agri-environment schemes. There is the expansion of the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, to accommodate 50,000 farmers. That is huge. There is €100 million for the beef and sheep sectors. The €20 ewe payment that was so badly sought by the sheep farmers has been put in there. The accelerated capital allowances for slurry storage are to continue. This is important in the context of the type of weather we now have. There is €57 million for organic farming and €15 million for the horticulture sector. I also welcome the measures there including developments for young farmers. It is a massive budget and it is a big budget. There will be money coming from other places as well for agriculture.

Briefly before I finish, I do worry about the cost of fuels and especially for people in rural areas. I would like the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to come to the House at some stage to discuss this.