asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that only IR£20 million has been spent on the western development package; and if he proposes any alteration to the scheme which could result in a more efficient utilisation of the funds within the proposed period.

Apart from aid for projects related to the processing and marketing of agricultural products, the total expenditure to 30 September 1985 under the western package is about £69 million.

The package operates by way of a programme approved by the EC Commission and this programme is subject to review at intervals of four years. The first such review is at present under way and an examination is being made of the options available for making the package a more effective instrument for the stimulation of agricultural development in the west.

Would the Minister agree that that scheme which was supposed to have been £30 million per year has been a flop and that under some of the headings there has been practically no takeup? Would he agree also that the conditions under which the scheme operated were such as to render it practically impossible for people to qualify?

As the Deputy will be aware, certain restrictions were imposed on the package at the time but there are certain headings under which we are ahead of schedule. Though we are only four years on, the greater part of the ten year allocation for rural water supplies has been taken up. I take it that the Deputy is referring to such items as forestry in respect of which less than £1 million of the £18 million earmarked has been taken up. It is against that background that the matter is being reviewed currently. The review is at a very advanced stage and we hope that some of the problems can be rectified as far as possible from an Irish point of view.

Would the Minister not agree that it was ridiculous so far as a severely handicapped area was concerned to impose the kind of restrictions that were imposed regarding qualification for the scheme? Is it not time that those restrictions were lifted?