Mr. Tony Murphy:

This goes back to the point made by Deputy Seán Haughey when he asked how the budget would be framed. We will obviously have to take all of these factors into account. When that happens, we will know the extent of the budget and have to be serious about what we can deliver with it, whatever it might be.

The Chairman asked about the Common Agricultural Policy. The Commission has made a proposal about greater subsidiarity at member state level, whereby matters would be left to a member state to design its own measures. It would make it more flexible in a way, but, on the other hand, it is also stating a figure 70% would still have to go towards direct payments. There is some degree of flexibility under the new scheme. Again, it is only a proposal from the Commission at this stage, but we will soon give an opinion on it and the final negotiated outcome.

On the issue of form filling and people making mistakes, at all times we try to promote simplification. We have had a couple of audits. We have a briefing paper on simplification in the post-2020 delivery of cohesion policy. The papers offer opinions or advice which may or may not be taken on board. We can only advise; we cannot insist or audit later. We would be compromised and have a conflict of interest. We are, however, in favour of simplification.

Youth unemployed was a case in point and an issue we discussed earlier. Employment policy is the prerogative of national authorities. The European Union makes a contribution, through which it tries to have some say on policy. The youth guarantee was an idea based on a Council decision. The member states agreed that they would all try to ensure everybody under 24 years of age would have a job, be in training or doing something within four months. Our conclusion again was, going back to expectations, that the publicity and hype beforehand gave the impression that it would solve everything, a like like PPPs. We said it was too much and that it would never work overnight. These things take time. It meant that there would have to be structural reforms in the labour market in many member states. In Greece and Italy the youth unemployment rate is over 50%. It takes a great deal of time to find jobs in the first place.

I think the Deputy mentioned that Ireland was good at activation measures.