Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply. He is correct. His Department has been very supportive over the past number of years in introducing new schemes to support the tillage sector, in particular the straw incorporation measure and the protein aid scheme. Those schemes, in the last year, amounted to roughly €10 million each. The announcement of the €50 million is very welcome and there seems to be, within the tillage sector, a kind of understanding that, of the €50 million, €10 million will go to the straw incorporation measure and €10 million will go to the protein aid scheme, which leaves around €30 million for the tillage scheme. If the Minister of State is going to be tightening the measures or working with farming organisations to make sure people who really need it get it as opposed to everyone getting it, that increases the individual level per acre that people are going to be paid, which is very welcome.

We all know it is an incredibly difficult time for tillage farmers. I was speaking to one tillage farmer of five or six generations. He said that, for the first time in his life, he was really not sure if there was a future in it. He loves the farm and loves working on it. As the Minister of State would understand, the farmer has an appreciation that he is just holding the farm until the next generation comes along but he said he was very worried about it. What we need to do, and what the Minister of State has done, in fairness, is set out not just a one-year emergency measure but a long-term plan on how we can support this sector. As has been outlined, there are 11,000 people working directly or indirectly in it and there is a knock-on effect for our economy. In every sector in agriculture, we grow the best quality of food and grain in the world. We need to be able to make sure these good tillage farmers are being supported to produce that going forward.