Having spoken to many farmers, there is deep scepticism about the Department of agriculture's capacity to deliver timely payments under the Government's €100 million fuel subsidy support scheme for farmers, agricultural contractors and fishermen and fisherwomen. The reason there is scepticism is that there were significant delays in payments under the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, which left many farm families waiting months. I have seen one family left waiting a number of years for an ACRES payment. Obviously, this money was promised and they had budgeted for it. It was not an isolated incident. Farmers have had long experience, unfortunately, of the Department announcing schemes with great fanfare only for there to then be delays and chaos. Will the Taoiseach confirm that additional staff will be allocated to the Department of agriculture to ensure that these payments will be made in a timely manner?

Sentiment score: 0.15