Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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470. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allocation €25 million in funding for the ewe flock in budget 2016. [31196/15]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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471. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allocating €65 million for suckler cow herd through the beef data and genomics scheme in the upcoming budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31197/15]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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472. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allocating €15 million of funding for the roll-out of knowledge transfer programmes across all sectors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31198/15]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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473. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on allocation €40 million required for on-farm investment through the TAMS II programme and increased funding for the TB eradication programme, to include increased consequential loss payments for farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31199/15]

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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474. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to allocate €250 million to the agri-environment schemes in the upcoming budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31357/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 470 to 474, inclusive, together.

The 2016 Estimate for my Department will be considered within the context of the annual gross expenditure ceilings which will be allocated to all Departments at the time of budget 2016. The Spring Economic Statement has outlined that fiscal space amounting to €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion, split between expenditure increases and tax reductions, will be available to the Government.  This will provide the Government with the opportunity to reduce the tax burden for low and middle income earners, encourage further economic growth and increase investment in public services.

In this context, preparations for the discussions on the 2016 Estimate are under way in the Department and all budget lines in the Vote, both capital and current, will be examined as part of that process. My intention is to ensure that all resources available to my Department will be managed to provide the optimum benefit to economic activity in the agricultural, food, fisheries and forestry sectors, including farm incomes, and to realising the potential which exists within the sectors.