Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Jim Higgins, MEP, made an announcement on local radio - I brought this up on the last occasion and I am curious about where he is getting this information - that before the next general election there would be a deal on retrospective bank recapitalisation. He was definitive about that. I am curious as to what magic hat he has pulled this information out of.

Negotiations are heading towards a conclusion on the Common Agricultural Policy. I wonder whether the Minister of State ever brings up the reports that €4.5 billion of the previous CAP funding was not spent on-farm but off-farm. It was spent on buy-to-let apartments in Ireland and on apartments in Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, etc. Given that we are coming close to finalising the latest round of CAP, I wonder what is being done to ensure that such funding is not spent yet again on what it should not be spent on. By the way, we get approximately half as much from CAP as we give away through fishing, and I ask the Minister of State not to respond by saying we are lucky to get it. We are not.

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