Mr. Enda Monaghan:

Yes. It was actually cut by approximately 70%. If one divides the €44 million into six years, it is approximately €7 million per year. The original budget was €10 million, but they were spending just €4.5 million. I will explain the way they were calculating it in order to say it had gone up by 40% or 50%. They said they had been spending €4.5 million and now they were going to spend €6 million or €7 million. I suggest it was actually cut. When we were setting out the measures we wanted, we calculated how much it would cost on the basis of 1,500 farmers being involved. We estimated that there were 1,100 or 1,200 farmers involved in the organic scheme and that an increase of 20% or 30% was expected. On that basis, we calculated that this would cost approximately €2 million if it was front-loaded.

They said the money was not there. A few months ago they put another €12 million into organic and we were looking €2 million to front-load it. They have put another €12 million in and now there is €56 million in it. The member spoke about the 1% in organic going to 5%. If they were serious about organic and they wanted to go up to 5%, one would want a 500% increase in the organic budget.

One could say all the mountain areas from Kerry to Donegal are organic but they do not have the paper. In the context of Food Wise 2025 and going from €10.5 billion where we are now up to €19 billion, we could increase our export value if all the food produced along the west coast was organic. We do not need to increase calving or the stocking rate. The food would be there if it were labelled organic. If there was a good scheme for them, it would come down from the mountains and could be fattened on the lowland. The market in Europe is €22 billion for organic and the Irish market is worth €100 million. We are way down.