Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

The EU is usually under quota, which is one logic that we used for putting forward the proposal. We made the point that some of the measures we were looking for, such as adjusting the fat coefficient, are technical but their effect is to allow one to produce more milk. Adjusting the fat coefficient would have allowed us, for example, to produce 2% more milk. We made the point that applying that across the countries that were likely to use it would not have led to an excess of the EU quota. We had very good arguments. There is no doubt who won the argument on logic and with the majority of member states. Unfortunately, the rules are that one needs a qualified majority. As it happens, the Commission could have chosen to make a proposal in its own right on the fat correction but the then Commissioner stated he would not make that proposal unless he saw a qualified majority asking for it.

We could not get that, so he would not make the proposal.

I was asked if we would allow amendments to GLAS if locally led schemes have overlapping provisions. I cannot answer these questions about the locally led schemes. I think there would be some difficulty from a Commission point of view. I am not impugning the logic but I think we would have a difficulty. In terms of how the locally led schemes operate, we have had to take them out of the rural development programme, RDP, and run a process outside it. When we select the winners from that process, we put them into the RDP. This is what we have agreed with the Commission. That means it will be done through an amendment of the RDP, which obviously creates certain possibilities that surrounding measures could also be amended, but I do not want to promise something we cannot deliver.

In regard to tier 3, I understand they are looking for a €1,700 payment under those measures. Some of the commentary in the media on GLAS has been extraordinary because this scheme has been extraordinarily successful so far in that we have had 28,000 applicants, some 20,000 with measures. The system has worked very well. I know members would not think that if they have read the media coverage and some of the public comments, which have been quite self-serving. It is clear that advisers who prepared well for this and have engaged properly with it have loaded lots of clients and are using the system well. Of course, with a new system, one will get glitches. However, one of the major difficulties is not IT issues but that it is new to people. The advisers are having to deal with something new and they have had to go on the learning curve as well. Some of them are improving their clients' applications to increase the amount of money they will be able to get. The Minister has urged farmers who are in tier 3 to look at what would be required to become tier 2 farmers and to consider whether they could make that leap. The Minister has made that point on a number of occasions. We are anxious to facilitate people and not to block them in any way.