Mr. Joe Healy:

The law will probably have to be changed at European Union level. Some EU member states are much more interested than is Ireland in maintaining the higher payments. The common consensus in Ireland is that people would prefer the ceiling to be much lower. We hope changes will be made as part of the review of the Common Agricultural Policy in 2020. It is impossible to defend payments that are only capped at €150,000. The ceiling could be reduced to one third of that figure. We can try to have the position changed but it will be difficult to do so.