Deputy Barry's time is up.

That is fine then. We will ignore the Chair.

Your time is up, Deputy. You are taking your colleague's time.

Under the time constraints, I ask our final speakers, the Minister and the Minister of State and Members from the Rural Independent Group, to consider that we would like to finish on time.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I call Deputy Ó Cathasaigh in the Government slot.

Next up is a Government slot. Deputy McAuliffe has seven minutes.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. It allows us time to examine the Government's recruitment freeze in more detail, and perhaps the Government will set out a logical, detailed and coherent argument for its introduction. If not, we will support its removal. The HSE is bloated. It costs the taxpayer too much via waste and the system is failing to deal with the major problems of waiting lists in the various health departments. Comparing the budget allocations for the Department of Health between 2016…

The first part of this question is very straightforward I hope a straightforward answer will follow. How many new applications will be accepted for ACRES this month? Along with thousands of farmers, I am very interested to know if the Minister believes that sufficient resources have been allocated to fund this scheme.

I have had lots of engagement with farmers in a variety of sectors over the four years that I have been a Deputy and I know there is a great willingness within the sectors to contribute. Farmers are very climate conscious, as is evidenced by the number of applicants for ACRES. My question is whether the Minister believes there is sufficient funding under ACRES to accommodate all of the farmers who are interested. It does not seem to me that €1.5 billion will be sufficient to accommodate 50,000 farmers. From a clima…

In the event that there are more than 50,000 applicants, can extra funding be drawn from somewhere? I agree with what Deputy Kerrane said earlier. I am concerned that we have such input and co-operation from our farming sector but in major sectors such as forestry, we are unable to get to grips with what should be one of our greatest assets in terms of reducing carbon emissions, which is to sow trees. We are letting farmers do it through ACRES. They are planting trees and hedges and are doing so quite efficiently b…

What direct engagement has the Minister had with tillage stakeholders? Has he acknowledged the emergency support package for tillage farmers needs to be increased and targeted more towards tillage farmers who have been unsuccessful in harvesting? Will he acknowledge the need to target supports for the sector to ensure viability into 2024?

It is difficult for me to continuously say that farmers are unhappy, but they are unhappy. All I ever hear from the Minister is what he has done and how it is the largest amount. Farming has never been in such a poor situation. I, too, attended a meeting with the IFA. It was held the night before the budget announcement and it was such a depressing meeting. The 70-odd dairy and tillage farmers who were there did not want to speak. The Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, who was present, stood up and said that t…

Eleven euro an acre warrants a slap somewhere else.

I appreciate that it does need to be targeted. That is something the sector itself believes. I am not letting the Minister off. He plied his trade going around the marts throughout the country. I was at one of them. If I had been a farmer, I would not have attended another one. The Minister has not been challenged in the media because his message is now so efficient from how he learned to get it off by heart. We are an agricultural economy, and I can tell the Minister the farmers no longer feel supported by Governm…

Solutions? Cut the price of hydrotreated vegetable oil.

Let us use diesel and grow trees. There are loads of solutions.

Giving out? The Minister should go to a mart and see how depressing they are.

Eleven euro an acre.

The platform is right. If the cap fits, wear it.