The Government received €1 billion from the EU under the Brexit adjustment fund. This was set up to help people impacted by Britain leaving the EU. Apparently, despite the crisis affecting many people in agriculture and the damage that is being done in the Irish fishing industry, the Government only managed to draw down €400 million of this €1 billion fund and the remaining €600 million has not been allocated. It goes without saying that the farming sector is suffering. One third of farmers are currently making a loss, one third of farmers are only making a living because someone is working off the farm and the average wage for a beef farmer is €16,000 a year, which is one twelfth of the Tánaiste's own wage. The country is in danger of losing €600 million of funding through the Brexit adjustment fund. Will the Tánaiste guarantee farmers and fisher men and women across the country that this money will be drawn down, will be spent in their communities and will not be diverted to any other fund?

The Government spends far more than €1 billion, as the Deputy knows, and we will draw that down. The Deputy is underestimating what has happened already under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, BAR. The level of investment in piers and harbours across the country is because of the BAR and the allocations are multiples of what we used to annually provide. There is no comparison. There was an open invitation to communities affected, particularly fisher communities around harbours and piers, and the BAR has helped us to allocate specific funding to those communities in respect of initiatives there.

Is the Government going to leave the €600 million behind?

In ports such as Rosslare, where there has been huge investment by the Government, some of that will hopefully be drawn down from the BAR, but we are doing it in any event because of Brexit. There are other aspects. The dairy industry has grown, notwithstanding Brexit. It is not as bleak a picture as the Deputy has painted, as he is wont to do-----

Is the €600 million going to be left behind?

We are going to draw it down.