Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The delegation is welcome. I wish to deal with the practical aspect. Am I correct in saying that what is proposed, ultimately, comes down to money for the State? Although there is a decrease in percentage terms of gross national income, GNI, the physical amount of money, depending on what I am reading, will go from €994 billion for 2013-17 to €1,033 billion for 2014-20. There is a physical increase in the absolute amount of money proposed by the Commission at the moment.

Let us consider the matter based on table 11. Some 85% of our funding for 2011 came under CAP, amounting to €1.645 billion out of €1.935 billion. That means €8.50 from every €10 is coming from Europe through CAP. The European Social Fund amounts to €112 million, the European Regional Development Fund is €49 million, the Cohesion Fund is down to a little under €9 million and the various others allocations bring the total to €1.935 billion.

Let us consider the negotiations and the way funding is allocated to member states and let us bear in mind that in 2011 our net receipts were €586 million according to table 10. Will the delegation give an indication of the total amount of money we received under the MFF programme and which was negotiated for 2007-13? Will the delegation seek to maintain that physical level of funding across the programme areas? Does the delegation understand my question? In simple terms, my question deals with the physical amount of funding. Although the percentage has gone from 1.12% in the seven years to 2013 down to 1.03%, under what is being proposed, the physical amount of money to be allocated by Europe is going up. If inflation is factored in, it has probably gone down in real terms but is the aim of the delegation in the negotiations to maintain or get an increase on the absolute amount of funding received between 2013-17 by 2020?