Mr. Enda Monaghan:

A neighbour of mine, who had vegetables, cattle and sheep on an organic Teagasc farm, does not intend to join the new organic scheme because it is not worth it for him. He will join GLAS. I would say he had approximately 20 ha. We originally got together as a group three and a half years ago when we saw the double-funding issue coming to light and decided to do something about it. We have been highlighting that issue since then. We knew that CAP would be coming on stream, so we put in our submissions and said there was a need to ensure whatever was planned as part of the new organics scheme was compatible with the new REPS. The Government knew that the double-funding issue was there. We were looking to front-load the payment to the smaller farmer, but they did not front-load it. They actually increased it from a 55-ha payment to a 60-ha payment. I think there are approximately 44,000 farmers with less than 20 ha. Many of them are in the west of Ireland. We could understand - to a point - why this was being done. They wanted to get the acres in and they did not mind about the production. It was handy for them to get in a bigger amount. They were also saying they needed to get more crops grown and more protein. We accept this is an issue. They were hoping bigger tillage farmers would get into it. We would prefer the payment to the smaller farmer to be front-loaded because that would allow him to grow his own crop or compensate him for the price he would have to pay. We have been highlighting the double-funding issue for three years. I suppose they have increased the organic payment from €106 per hectare to €170 per hectare. It is a big increase all right. We came up with our own figures and costings and we sent all of that in. They gave us the €170, but then they came along with the GLAS which gives €315 to a farmer with 10 ha. The figure of €3,000 for certification equates to €600 a year. A farmer over the wall might not have been paying that €600. We actually have to pay it for six years because our year starts in the middle of the year, in May. We need to have certification from the start of the year. In the final year - the fifth year - we are in the middle of another year so we need to pay our certification costs again. That means we actually pay €3,600.