Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

The Common Agricultural Policy exists explicitly to support farm families, and that is what it does. That is why the European model of agriculture still substantially involves smaller family farms. The irony is that this makes it difficult to compete on a global level with countries that mass-produce food on large farms. That makes it difficult for Irish and European farmers to compete at a global level. That is why we have those supports. We support a model of agriculture and a set of standards that do not necessarily apply elsewhere. That involves costs. Of course, we argue for the best possible budget for the Common Agricultural Policy. We are doing that now in the context of a new multi-annual financial framework. However, other member states embrace other funding priorities at EU level. We have always been very supportive of devoting the maximum possible funding to agriculture, even though we have been substantial net contributors to the budget since 2014.