Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. I say to the Commissioner that he has the opportunity to communicate through this committee to farmers who will potentially see their programme payments cut. I am giving him that opportunity, but he is obviously not going to take it in the way I thought he would.

There is a second point. The proposal from the Commission is to increase the figure from 1% to 1.1% or 1.2% of gross national income, GNI. The European Parliament favours an increase of 1.3%. In response to Deputy Michael McGrath the Commissioner spoke about a 50:50 split between cuts and increases in contributions. What would be required in terms of the increase in the percentage of GNI to avoid cuts to the multi-annual financial framework?