Mr. Pat McCormack:

I will follow on from Deputy Michael Collins's comment that an income of €10,000 needs to be protected. I agree that the first €10,000 of one's envelope should be exempt from convergence. That would take a lot of the pain out for the smaller family farm structure. The Deputy and Senator Lombard were right in their comments that convergence is moving money west but I would say it is moving money from the more productive areas.

Obviously, food production and farming activity brought these payments to the country. As I mentioned earlier, we are in a time of volatility and this has helped underpin all sectors of agriculture in difficult times in the past. We will not have that support into the future, which makes the rural economies very vulnerable.