Enhanced grants and loans for affected farmers
Noonan proposes doubling headage grants in affected western areas and offering interest-free loans to badly affected small farmers. Connaughton says no such measures are currently planned, but the situation is being monitored.
(Limerick West): Sympathy is not much good for the people concerned. What the Minister of State has outlined to us not alone today but on previous occasions is that he has merely allocated grants or funds which would normally be available. In some instances he advanced the payments.
Would the Minister consider doubling the headage grants in certain areas in the west to the affected farmers, to the maximum amount possible? Perhaps the Minister might also consider making interest free loans available to the small number of farmers who are badly affected, which could be done through the co-operatives. These are positive suggestions and the Minister should seriously consider them.
