Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will not push the issue but the intention of this amendment is not to put an additional burden on small farmers. Farmers, whether small, medium, or large, already have too much of a burden in terms of paperwork and administration at this point in time. However, the farming community itself believes that there is black market activity taking place which is placing those who are compliant at a disadvantage and this amendment is about trying to enhance the position of the compliant farmers and contractors. The amendment only applies to flat-rate farmers who are small farmers, in the main.

I ask that we revisit this issue at some stage in the future.