I want to raise the very important issue of social farming. As the Minister knows, social farming gives an opportunity to people with disabilities to work alongside farmers on family farms one day per week. For instance, in County Kerry we have an excellent social farming model. It is a voluntary project, which makes it sustainable and long-term. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister, Deputy Michael Creed, who has always been positive and workmanlike in ensuring we have received funding from the Department for this worthwhile project. People such as Eamon Horgan from Kilgarvan, who is a farmer participating in the scheme, have complimented the Minister at every opportunity for being proactive in ensuring we have had the necessary funding. It works in County Kerry on 19 farms and there are 36 participants. We need further funding to be made available to ensure we will have the money to employ the facilitators to engage in the project and organise it properly.

People who started in the early stages of the project have been going to the same farms for five years and have built up great relationships. They have various types of disabilities but they have built up great relationships with the farmers and their families and neighbours and with the communities to which they go. It is a really worthwhile scheme. The majority of these people are in receipt of a social welfare payment. It is good for the participants in that it improves their self-esteem, builds up their confidence and gives them the life experience of working on a farm, which they might not have an opportunity to do where they are from. To be honest, if we were here for the rest of the day I could not praise the scheme enough. It breaks up isolation for the farmer. There is a win-win for everybody in this. It breaks up a lonely day for the farmers who welcome the young or middle-aged person onto the farms. They can tell stories about what is going on. It is good for the young person who is being educated on the ways of farming.

We want to make sure that the project will be given the finance it needs. The Taoiseach saw it first hand at Project Ireland 2040 in Westport and I know he is aware of the scheme and its benefits. Something I will look to get from the Government is to see where we want to go with the project. In Kerry we want to move from having 19 farms involved to 50 farms. We want to go from having 36 participants to 100 participants. We have people in the county who will be most welcome and would be grateful to be allowed this opportunity to go onto farms in the community and gain experience on them.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. It is important that by doing so he is increasing awareness of the scheme, which really does benefit the farmer and the participant. At the Deputy said, it is a win-win for everybody. Like myself, the Deputy is from a rural background and he is a strong advocate for our farmers and all things rural. The social farming model is a very important Government initiative that provides a service through communities for people availing of a range of health service supports. It offers on a voluntary basis participation in a farming environment as a choice to people who avail of a range of therapeutic day support services. Often these people have physical and intellectual disabilities. Not only does it assist in the promotion and development of the practice of social farming, it also connects social farmers, organisations and the service providers giving support to the many participants taking part to improve their well-being and grow their confidence.

In October, the Minister, Deputy Creed, announced that his Department will allocate €713,504 under the 2019 rural innovation and development fund. Participation in social farming has been shown to provide benefits such as improved community connections and relationships, increased self-esteem and capacity, improved health and well-being and the opportunity to learn new skills. It provides participants with the opportunity to do ordinary things in ordinary places and is wholly in line with shifts in Government policy in health, social care and labour activation towards a social model of disability with person-centred planning and community inclusion. It is a model that works and the Deputy is absolutely right that we should support it.

The 2020 allocation under the fund has not been announced but the Minister, Deputy Creed, has informed me the scheme will continue to be funded at the same level in 2020. As the Deputy said, we need to build on it because it is a very good scheme. I have had the pleasure of meeting the Leitrim providers at Bloom two years in a row as they qualified to get there. What they are doing for people with disabilities is fantastic. They bring them out and give them an experience on the land working with farmers. It is very rewarding for everybody. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

I am very happy with the level of funding until 2020. My concern is about the fact the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has indicated it will not be able to fund it after this. Will it be funded by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection? To this end, considering the participants are people who receive payments from that Department, I ask the Minister whether the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection will meet the organisers in County Kerry to discuss the future of the project. I thank the Kerry Parents and Friends Association, St. John of God Kerry Services, Local Link Kerry, which provides transport supports through the social car initiative, and people such as Joe McCrohan, Eamon Horgan and all of the farmers who allow the scheme to exist and to grow. This and future Governments, whoever they may be, should make sure to safeguard this most important scheme. It has nothing but benefits for everybody and it is very important that every one of us in the Chamber supports it and ensures its budget is rubberstamped and protected for future so there will never be a doubt about it and that it can grow. Please allow it to grow in Kerry. We need the money. We have proved in the past we have an excellent model but, then again, the people in Kerry do things better than everybody else all of the time anyway. This scheme is definitely run through an excellent model in County Kerry. Please support it.

I agree that it is a good scheme. In my experience, I have never seen good schemes or projects that did not get funding. This one deserves to get funding. The roll-out of this initiative has involved a significant commitment from farmers and service providers. The Minister announced the extension of the social farming model contracts to the Leitrim Integrated Development Company, the South Kerry Development Partnership and Down's Syndrome Ireland's Cork branch, which will enable those organisations to expand the work they have already started in their areas. Funding of €123,000 has been provided to the South Kerry Development Partnership, which does good work, and funding of €121,000 has been provided to the Leitrim Integrated Development Company. I take the Deputy's comments on board. I will raise the matter and the Deputy's request with the Ministers for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Agriculture, Food and the Marine.