Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State’s outline of the situation and thank her for that. I believe the Department will have to look at the significant support for farmers who have taken a disproportionate hit in terms of loss of value due to the star rating changes. I would ask the Minister of State and the Minister to consider some kind of a programme of compensation that would assist in that. I get that there are some farmers whose position will improve, and best of luck to them, but I am always concerned about the loser here and those who will take a very significant loss in the short term. I welcome the fact that cows that remain in the herd will retain that rating for the benefit and purpose of being able to draw the grants - that is a welcome clarification – but there are those who have cows in calf who will be selling or hoping to sell weanlings at a later stage. They will have had an expectation based on the star rating of being able to achieve a certain price in the marketplace. That will now change. We need to look at that, insofar as we can.