Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

As somebody who comes from an agricultural constituency, I am sure the Deputy will let me finish the point. This is really important, especially with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform listening. If it were not for the huge transfers we receive in agriculture, if in the morning the Common Agricultural Policy was abolished and everything was renationalised, Ireland would be a massive net contributor to the European Union. The reason we are more or less in balance is that we receive massive transfers in agriculture. We get €3 for every €1 we put in into agriculture. I see my colleague from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform taking notes. I am glad about that.

The issue the Deputy has raised is completely reasonable in terms of whether we tried to secure resolution of the issue of the superlevy in 2014 during the negotiations. We did. We fought very hard for this, even beyond the Irish Presidency and into the following one. There was a major meeting of the Council of Ministers - my memory is that it was held in Luxembourg - at which this was battled for. We sought to get the Commission, under the previous Commissioner, to make a proposal to adjust the fat level in milk as it was counted. This sounds rather technical.