Mr. John Sheridan:

Those are the figures. It may have been contraried - in a meeting the committee had - between what comes in as direct payment under Pillar 1 and what comes in other payments under Pillar 2 with rural development payments. That could be contraried there and I dare say that is what happened.

The committee must understand that the Ulster Farmers Union, with the greatest of respect to it, is not the only farming community lobby organisation in the North. There is also the National Beef Association, the National Sheep Association, the severely disadvantaged areas, SDA, group and the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association, NIAPA. There is a voice not being heard. I said this in Monaghan as well and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, picked up on it and stated exactly what Senator Landy stated that such was not the voice that they were hearing.

In fairness to the UFU, I must say it makes its decisions through its executive and it has 14 or 16 committees which feed into it. Whereas it is certainly seen to work in so far as it can across all religious persuasions and walks of life, it would be perhaps perceived to be pro-Unionist. There is a caution - this caution in the North - that one is in one's lobby group, one does not want to fall out with the government of the day and one exercises extreme care.

Most significantly, to answer the question, the Ulster Farmers Union is a part of the NFU. There is an NFU in England, Scotland and Wales and the UFU in Northern Ireland - four sister groups. The NFU adopted a position against Brexit. The UFU sat on the fence. It did not lead and did not take a position one way or another. It held one conference to which the previous president of the NFU, Sir Peter Kendall, was asked.

Sir Peter Kendall missed his flight to the North that night for the conference. Owen Paterson did not miss his flight, however, and I dare say they were booked on the same flight. Owen Paterson was completely in favour of Brexit and he was a former Minister of State for Northern Ireland. He was also an agricultural spokesman for the Tory Party in Europe. He stood up and guaranteed at least the same funding for agriculture as previous for the North and said it would perhaps be even more. He said they would get rid of the rules and red tape. He commented three or four times on the three-crop rule. If one is in Europe and one is going through large fields, one can see some fields to the horizon and the tractors in them look like toys, so it is not too hard having a three-crop regulation there. It does not work on small family farms in Ireland, however. That is what the Ulster Farmers Union did for Brexit, so perhaps that goes some way to explain why a voice is not being heard.