Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There was not originally in terms of the €25 million. That opportunity has passed. In truth, our problem with the RDP, and I can deal with this in greater detail, is that our Estimate is that we will overspend on it by approximately €106 million over the lifetime of the programme. If we take areas of natural constraint, ANC, liabilities into account, it could be more. Cumulatively, it could amount to an overspend of up to €300 million.

What is not widely recognised, and I did not want to get into this response now, is that when the 2014 to 2020 RDP was being launched, we had a liability of almost €600 million carried forward from the previous RDP. Given that there is much debate now on how the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, will be funded, and the level of funding that will be available to member states post-2020, it would be imprudent to load additional liabilities onto the next CAP when we do not know the level of funding that will be available for that. Currently, our projections are for an overspend of substantial amounts, so we do not have the head room to consider additional expenditure.

I want to deal with the other points raised-----