Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

That is a national policy decision. The EU gives us our pot for rural development and we decide how much to spend on individual schemes. Since the Government has committed to putting in an additional €25 million, I interpret that at the moment as meaning that it will be €227 million in 2018.

Areas will fall out of qualification. It is quite possible - quite likely - that areas that currently do not qualify will fall into qualification under these criteria. I keep repeating that we will have this 10% discretion. This could end up in a number of ways. We could end up, for example, with more areas overall, in which case the pot widens and shallows.

There are several ways this could shake out. I have no doubt this will be a big issue next year.

I skipped over several points that Deputy D'Arcy raised. The cash flow fund of €150 million is intended to be a very flexible fund for farmers, not just a low interest rate. There is provision in it for up to three years of interest only payments. A farmer who has low prices, high borrowings and big outgoings could, hopefully, with this product refinance that borrowing and get the benefit of a lower interest rate but if he felt his circumstances were such that he needed to go on interest only payments he could do so. That could cut his payments by a very substantial margin. That is one reason we are doing it this year.