Mr. Colm O'Donnell:

I can assure Deputy Fitzmaurice that we are certainly against the differentiating of land. I was surprised when I got a communication from him that the Commission has proposed to count this proposed GAEC 2 derogation to ineligible hectare standard rules. Consequently, the Commission is referring to it as a derogation at this stage. The Minister's position will be that minimum protection is better than the Parliament's effective protection and appropriate protection by the Commission. Anywhere, where the word "protection" is mentioned in terms of a GAEC smells like a designation to me. Farmers will have to comply with standards of GAECs in order to get a basic income support for sustainability, to get their first year of a payment. If this is onerous then this will leave farmers in a difficult position to build a payment in environmental measures or, indeed, in the eco scheme. My colleague, Mr. O'Donnell, wants to make a quick point and I will leave it at that.