I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The tillage sector is an integral part of Irish farming and makes a really significant contribution to overall agricultural output. This Government recognises the importance of the sector and wants to grow the area under tillage crops in the years ahead. The report of the Food Vision 2030 tillage group, which was set up to set out a roadmap for the growth and development of the sector, identifies opportunities to grow the sector and to further improve its environmental footprint. My Department continues to engage with stakeholders to progress the actions in the report through collaboration with all stakeholders. My Department has provided significant support to tillage farmers in recent years. The budget for protein aid has increased to €10 million annually since 2024. Applications for over 66,000 ha of cereals and oilseed rape straw were submitted for chopping and incorporating in 2025 under the straw incorporation measure. I have committed to paying all farmers who have applied under the scheme. I have made this decision early to give certainty to farmers while also giving them an economic boost. In financial terms, €10 million per year was budgeted for straw incorporation as part of the CAP strategic plan, CSP, but the applications this year amount to over €15 million. It is not an insignificant decision for me to make in regard to managing my budget, but I wanted to do it to be able to provide that certainty and support. I am a major supporter of straw incorporation. I believe it does great work and provides a number of great benefits to our farmers. In February this year, I announced €32.4 million of payments under the tillage and horticulture support scheme, which was the Government’s response to the difficult position tillage and horticultural farmers found themselves in due to exceptionally poor weather and continued high input costs last spring. This exceeds the €30 million provided for in last year's budget. I had to try to find extra money within my budget and made that decision to prioritise because I was anxious that we be able to make the payment on every hectare of eligible ground. The extra €2.5 million was part of that.

Sentiment score: 0.29

I concur and agree with the Deputy that we want to see growth in the tillage sector. After two really hard years, I am very heartened to see a slight increase on last year in the area under arable and tillage crops. In the face of two horrendous years, it has stabilised. This year is difficult. Futures prices for the sector are still very challenging. It is the one sector of agriculture that has not seen a big uplift in commodity prices. At the same time, the crops are looking good. We have had a good year as regards weather. The winter crops in particular are looking very clean and full. We are very hopeful for a good harvest. Spring crops are obviously always somewhat more variable but a lot more winter crops were sowed in the back end of last year because of the weather. We will keep a very close eye on it from that perspective. The tillage sector is supported under other schemes, including the tillage capital investment scheme, the organic farming scheme and ACRES. There are many farmers who are glad to be in ACRES this time. The water quality European Innovation Partnership, EIP, is also open to them. There is, therefore, a range of measures to support our tillage sector.

Sentiment score: 0.24

At the end of the day, we continue to have those supports in place. There is strong co-operation, €10 million for the protein aid scheme and the allocation of money for the intervention earlier this year. While that was to recognise last year's hardship, it came out of the budget for this year, which I have to manage for tillage and all other sectors. I will continue to work with the sector. I absolutely recognise the challenges. The latest Teagasc income figure is €38,000. When you consider input costs relating to the long-term leasing of land and the price farmers are paying in that regard if they are farming more than their own land, the input costs of machinery, depreciation and the very high cost of replacing machinery, and all of the other input costs, you will see that the risk-reward ratio in respect of that investment is very challenging. That is why I will continue to work with the tillage sector, provide targeted support given the importance of the sector within the wider agriculture industry and deliver on the commitment in the programme for Government to invest significantly in the tillage sector over the next five years.

Sentiment score: 0.26

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. To answer his question directly, the last thing farmers need is a further increase in the spread of TB. That is the root cause of all of this stress and concern, which the Deputy has articulated very clearly and on which I completely agree with him. My job is to provide leadership and to bring farmers with us. Everybody is going to have to do a little bit more here. That includes my Department and its officials as regards my budget. We are all going to have to do a bit more as we change our approach to TB. As the Deputy will know, bovine TB is a very challenging disease to control and eradicate. Levels have continued to deteriorate in recent years. Herd incidence has increased from 4.31% in 2022 to 6.04% in 2024, resulting in a 36% increase in the number of herds restricted between 2022 and 2024. As of 22 June of this year, over a 12-month period we had a herd incidence of 6.43%. In 2024, it was 6.04% and it is now 6.43% with over 43,455 reactors. This disease is having an impact on farmers and their families both financially and emotionally throughout rural Ireland. As the Deputy will know, following extensive discussions at the TB forum, I met with TB stakeholders on 8 May and farming organisations and key stakeholders on 22 May with a view to agreeing an action plan for bovine TB based on the most effective ways to mitigate the impact of bovine TB on farm families and to reduce herd incidence and spread of the disease. At these meetings, I presented five key pillars to address the current rates of bovine TB. The first was to support herds free of bovine TB in remaining free. The second was to reduce the impact of wildlife on the spread of bovine TB. The third was to detect and eliminate bovine TB infection as early as possible in herds with a TB breakdown to avoid future breakdowns. The fourth was to help farmers improve all areas of on-farm biosecurity and the fifth was to reduce the impact of known high-risk animals in spreading bovine TB. I will provide further answers in my supplementary responses.

Sentiment score: 0.18

While trying to bring people with us and minimise the impact on farmers, who are already extremely stressed, I have to ensure that we have a science-based approach and that what we do is backed up by science. There are three very clear causes of the spread of bovine TB: cattle-to-cattle transmission, residual transmission and wildlife. If we do not have a suite of measures that, when layered over one another, give us a level of cover that addresses all three of those areas, we will fail. That involves difficult decisions for all of us. It also involves a change of practice in how my Department operates, in how testing operates, in how we deal with herds and in what is identified as a high-risk herd because what we have been doing has not worked and has left gaps. That is because we do not have 100% foolproof testing. The skin test has 80% efficacy. I want to introduce a lot more blood testing in high-risk categories. The efficacy rate of such testing is over 90%. Ultimately, there is more TB left in herds that we have to identify. We have to identify it early and get it out rather than waiting and finding it later on because that is where the disease is seeding. There is a range of measures we can take to address that.

Sentiment score: -0.06

I want to provide that clarity as soon as possible and to restore confidence in this scheme. The final set of proposals I bring forward will be the biggest change in our approach to TB in the 75 years the disease has been in this country. I have held discussions and meetings that have fed into the TB plan, which I intend to finalise the details of and publish shortly. At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 24 June, I received approval and support from my Government colleagues to address the current high level of bovine TB with this plan. The Deputy is dead right to say this will be expensive. It will cost more money in the short term. I believe it is a strong business case because I am front-loading expenditure to save money in the long run. That is definitely a case I am making, but a significant amount of money will be required. If we are successful, it will not necessarily identify more herds affected, but will identify earlier more reactors within the herds affected. We need that to happen to get them out and to stop them seeding the disease out. These new measures will require significant changes to the existing TB programme. There will be significant funding and other implications. We are currently working through the necessary preparations to implement these changes as soon as possible.

Sentiment score: 0.16

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this important topic. There is EU and national legislation in place to protect the welfare of pigs. It sets out detailed requirements for pigs, including, for example, requirements for minimum space, feeding and watering of pigs, environmental enrichment, lighting and noise levels. Regarding sow stalls and farrowing crates, the legislation allows for sows and gilts to be confined in stalls and crates for a defined period and currently both are used on most Irish pig farms for management purposes. My Department has implemented specific actions to help reduce the need for routine tail docking of pigs. These include the delivery of a free animal welfare risk assessment tool for commercial pig farms in collaboration with Animal Health Ireland and Teagasc. The tool enables farmers to work with their vet to identify their risk factors for tail-biting and to develop an action plan to deal with those risks. More than 1,300 assessments have been carried out across 400 pig farms to date. My Department also carries out risk-based inspections on a number of pig farms each year to check compliance with the legislation. Tooth reduction in piglets is currently necessary to prevent injuries to the teats of sows and to other piglets when they suckle. However, the castration of pigs is not routinely carried out in Ireland. Under the farm to fork strategy, the European Commission committed to revising the EU animal welfare legislation, including the pig welfare directive. The Commission has also indicated that a phasing out of the use of cages for animals, including sow stalls and crates, is being considered. It is important that any new welfare legislation is based on science, with reasonable transition periods and supports given to farmers. I will continue to closely monitor developments at EU level.

Sentiment score: 0.13

The Government strongly condemns any cruelty or mistreatment of any animal. It is my Department's policy to investigate all allegations of illegal or criminal behaviour and to prepare files for appropriate action. We have very robust animal welfare legislation in this country. The welfare of all animals, in particular those in intensively reared systems such as pigs, is a priority for my Department. In the case of pigs, there is sector-specific legislation in place based on existing EU rules. Some of the measures the Deputy talks about are unpleasant in nature but they also involve animal welfare measures. A large sow rolling over on very young piglets could cause their death, which would not be positive. The purpose of the crate around farrowing time is to prevent that happening. For that reason, we must look at animal welfare measures in the round. It is the same with the point about piglets' teeth and the impact they can have on other piglets or the sow.

Sentiment score: -0.21

I repeat that the Government strongly condemns any cruelty or mistreatment of any animal. We carry out risk-based assessments. We also carry out investigations into any allegations of illegal or criminal behaviour and we prepare files for the Director of Public Prosecutions, as appropriate. That is a strong priority of my Department. We take that responsibility very seriously. I want to be very clear on that. My Department recently published an updated specification for new pig housing under TAMS 3, with requirements including more space, more comfortable flooring, more feeding space and farrowing pens of 6.5 sq. m. Sows can only be kept in a crate for a few days around farrowing, and the rest of the time they must be loose in the pen. Housing constructed in line with this specification will enhance pig welfare and enable farmers to move towards rearing pigs with long tails. We are working on that in a very clear direction. We take a very serious approach to any infringement of animal welfare laws, which is our role. We continue to engage at a European level on the future direction of policy regarding the points Deputy Murphy raised.

Sentiment score: -0.02

I hope the Deputy always expects a good answer, not just to one question. I thank him very much for raising the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES. The scheme is very important. I accept that there are challenges in regard to it for some farmers. ACRES is the flagship environmental scheme provided under the 2023-27 CAP strategic plan, with €1.5 billion in Exchequer and EU funding allocated over the course of the scheme. There are currently just under 54,000 participants in ACRES. Payments in respect of ACRES continue to issue on a weekly basis, as cases pass all required validation checks. A total of €512.2 million has now issued since ACRES payments commenced at the end of 2023. That is more than half a billion euro in a couple of years paid directly to farmers to support them in the measures they are taking. In the case of the 2023 scheme year, almost 99% of participants have been paid in full. As regards 2024, 97% of participants have received their advance payments and almost 94% of participants have now received a balancing payment. My Department is committed to resolving as soon as possible the issues that have been delaying the remaining payments. Additional resources have been deployed and we are systematically working through the remaining issues associated with the outstanding cases. These issues can range from internal departmental matters, such as the processing of changes of ownership and the finalisation of payment calculation processes, to external, applicant- or adviser-related matters such as the submission of documentation. While we continue to work on those internal issues, I take this opportunity to remind farmers who have further information to submit to do so as soon as possible. My Department will continue to issue regular online updates in the coming period on the progress being made. I am not happy that some farmers are not being paid on time and when they expected to be paid. It was a top priority for me to address this issue when I came into this office at the end of January. I will not rest until the situation has been resolved for every last farmer. We have made very significant progress in recent months to get the number down to the current very low level. It is a top priority for me and my officials to continue to work until the situation has been resolved.

Sentiment score: 0.27

I did not say that.

Sentiment score: 0.00

I did not say that. The Deputy should not attribute comments to me about staffing issues. I have been very clear here; we have had a very significant challenge with processing and working through all of these issues. Some farmers were not paid on time. When I came into this job on 23 January, 14,500 farmers who were due to be paid had not been paid because of challenges we had in processing their applications. That was not acceptable to me. It is still not acceptable to me that there is a couple of percent of farmers left unpaid. However, the progress we have made from 14,500 farmers unpaid when I started this job less than six months ago to getting that down to 1,586 farmers, of whom 514 are from 2023 so are counted twice in that measure, is significant. We have made very significant changes to our structures in Johnstown Castle. We have brought about a number of changes in how we process these. I have put extra resources in there from a departmental perspective to get those farmers paid with the promise that these challenges would not recur. The resolutions we found to these problems took time because we did it in a systematic way and dealt with the cohorts group by group and designed the IT functionality around that, so that this problem would not recur every year and that we could restore confidence in this really exceptional scheme that has put more than €500 million into farmers' pockets.

Sentiment score: 0.12

I believe we have made progress. I cannot be any clearer; I will not rest until every last farmer is paid. I will continue to push my officials and push the system as hard as possible to work through those last issues. The last issues are also the most difficult. To be at 99%, 97% and 94% of payments through the different cohorts is significant progress. We have made a commitment that problems will not recur on this scale. The Deputy asked for a specific breakdown, so let us make it specific to Tipperary. In Tipperary, of the applicants in 2023, 1,559 have been fully paid and only 14 still have challenges we are working through. There are 14 outstanding and 1,559 have been paid. In 2024, 1,842 received advance payments for 2024 and 1,797 received the balancing payments on that as well, with 63 of the advance payments not paid and 113 of the balancing payments not paid. Those farmers still have to be sorted. They are my focus and I continue to do that while making sure we can restore confidence in the sector. However, the vast majority of the Deputy's farmers in Tipperary and farmers in other parts of the country have had those problems resolved. They are finding great benefits and delivering benefits through ACRES, which has delivered more than €500 million into our economy and into farmers' pockets over the last couple of years.

Sentiment score: 0.20