Mr. Phil Hogan:

Thank you very much, Chairman. I assure Deputy Carey that the community-led local development model will be retained. We want the community sector to be strong. There will be ring-fenced resources in the future, post-2020, in the same way as there are now.

Many speakers asked about the budget and the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. As Deputy Penrose and I know very well from the time we were in a little bit of hardship together down in the Custom House when we had to go to see the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, it was not an easy place to be in terms of an Estimates process when there was very little money. In fact, we were going into a situation where we had no money, and the challenge was to try to hold onto the programmes we had. The current situation is a little bit like that now, in that due to Brexit we have €12 billion less in funding and we have a demand for more money for other initiatives. There is a finite number of places we can get funding but the principal one is based around the gross national income of the member state. At the moment we are paying equivalent to 1.13% of gross national income on the basis of an EU 27. If Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Austria want to hold the line and say there should not be another euro for Europe then we are in trouble because unanimity is required. We hope that at the end of the day they will like the new policy initiatives that are being discussed more than the ones that affect us in relation to Brexit. The negotiations for the next year will be difficult. The Commission can only make a proposal and it is ultimately the member states in the European Parliament that will make the final decisions.

On the impact of the budget on rural development, of course there is going to be a knock-on effect on all programmes, including agriculture and cohesion, if there is going to be less money. In response to Deputy Healy-Rae, Ireland without the UK will have to build new alliances. That work is ongoing and an effort is being made to build alliances with an arc of countries around the United Kingdom, where there is a lot of dependence on the UK market. That is an obvious place to start. We are very conscious of the suckler herd. We can give flexibility to the member state and the Minister of the day on the type of issues the Deputy mentioned, to draw up their priorities in the context of the CAP plan. They have the chance of putting in a little bit of voluntary, coupled support if they wish for sectors that are under pressure, and that will be retained. I do not know where the notion came from that we were going to prevent part-time farmers from getting money. It must be a Kerry issue because I got a letter from Kerry County Council.