The Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has expressed his preference to continue on in the role following the cabinet reshuffle in December.
It’s expected that there will be a number of changes to the current cabinet after Leo Varadkar takes over the role of Taoiseach from Michael Martin on December 15th.
It’s also being speculated that the Agriculture portfolio is one Fine Gael is anxious to secure.
Speaking to Ocean FM news, Minister McConalogue says he and the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party would be interested in retaining the Agriculture Portfolio:
Today also marks deadline for applications to be submitted under the Shass Mountain Relief Scheme.
Over the past number of days calls were made on the Agriculture Minister to extend the deadline with many farmers feeling that they still concerns over the finer detail of the scheme.
Minister McConalogue acknowledged that while the arrangements around future payments have still to be confirmed he says the a comprehensive packaged has been allocated to the farmers impacted by the landslide:
