Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

There is no detail in the proposals as to how the front-loading is required to be done or how much money should be put into it. I am not sure if it is one of those articles on which there will be further secondary legislation to define how it will be done, but it would allow hectares on a farm to be picked without them necessarily being the first ones. For example, one could choose a higher level of payment for between ten and 30 ha or for between one and 20 ha. Everybody, including bigger farmers, would get that front-loaded payment but it would obviously shift the balance towards smaller farmers. I would see that operating as part of the overall convergence. In other words, the objective here is to get everybody to 75% of the average per hectare payment by 2026. That is the objective outlined here. The front-loaded payment, which is a mandatory requirement, would contribute to that overall convergence. That is the idea.