Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It may be a good idea for us to get together to come up with proposals. There is an opportunity in this part of our considerations to make sure that if there is to be a coupling it rewards activity and that if anyone is at a loss it should be the people who are less active. We are still talking about it. We still have not figured out the definition of "active". Going back to coefficients and different categories of land - and, as Deputy Ó Cuív said, people in the same cohort of production - there are ways to tailor a scheme with some decoupling to make sure that the people who get the extra money are those who are more active. That draws a line in single farm payments between the more and the less active. It could cover many things.

We have spent an hour on the CAP and the Minister has yet to answer some questions, particularly on the consultation process, the inspection regime and the reference year. Those are the questions that remain unanswered. When we get those answers we will move on to fisheries and we will work on this at an early stage in our work programme.