Mr. J.P. Mulherin:

That is a political question for the then Ministers. One must look at the size of the overall rural development programme this time around compared to the previous time and the different funding percentage that was made as part of that. I was not there at the time and I am not aware of the full size of the previous rural development programme. Certainly, the allocation for this rural development programme, at 7% of European funding, is higher than the minimum that is required. I believe it is not dissimilar to what was done previously but I would need to check the figures on that and come back to the Senator.