Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish Tom Hickey the very best of luck in his retirement. I did not realise he was moving on. He has been a fantastic civil servant and he will be a deep loss to the House.

I raise the issue of the ACRES payment in the agriculture sector. The ACRES payment is really important for small farmers and they need to make sure they get money for this scheme. They were supposed to get paid last October but they know they will not get paid until February and it has been indicated today that they may not get paid until March. Some have been paid but the majority have not. The problem is that these are small-time farmers, the majority of whom are not productive, and they need to get money for Christmas. I do not understand why a payment of at least 50% could not be made to them in the next few days. The Department knows who the applicants are and what they have done.It is the administration of the Department that is at fault. It is the small farmers, who want to get paid, who are going to get hammered here. This is what they want. They are not really productive people who have big milk cheques coming in every day. They do not have that opportunity, so they need to get paid. The Minister is acting like Scrooge regarding this issue at the moment. He needs to do something; he needs to pay them. A payment has to be made to all of these ACRES people between now and 25 December. Otherwise, they will not have money for Christmas. It is an issue that the Minister needs to deliver on. It is his Department that has failed to do the work here, and nobody else. It is not Europe or anyone else. I do not understand how he could not have put a process in place whereby they could at least get a part payment. It is unacceptable that these people have to wait. If it was anyone else in civil society, and civil servants, teachers and doctors were not getting paid, there would be war, but it is okay to leave the small farmers unpaid. It is not good enough. Something needs to be done in the next week.