Mr. Brendan Joyce:

I will come back on three points raised by Deputy Carthy, namely, convergence, capping and front-loading. Our position is very clear. We are in favour of capping at €60,000 with no loopholes, frills or spills. The INHFA position in that regard is that the absolute limit must be €60,000.

We are in favour of 100% convergence. That will deliver for 72,000 farmers in this country. The majority of farmers will benefit from full convergence. That is the position of INHFA. We recognise that it may create some complications for some farmers with smaller hectares and higher per hectare entitlements in that they would be unfairly hit. That is why CRISS was brought in. A comment was made that CRISS would be available to every farmer but we could target it. In our case, we suggest targeting it at the first 15 ha. If we combine 10% funding of CRISS with a cap of €60,000, that would deliver, according to our figures, €80 per hectare on the first 15 ha. That would mean every single farmer would receive more than €300 per hectare on the first 15 ha. We ask that the Department verify those figures because up to this point, we have not seen any modelling done by the Department around CRISS. We are calling for that to take place because as other speakers mentioned, that insulates the vulnerable farmers. The convergence model delivers for the majority of farmers.

The Deputy asked a question on protests on Friday. In our view, any farmer who takes to the streets in support of a lower convergence and is not in favour of CRISS is not delivering for 72,000 farmers in this State. In actual fact, such farmers are not delivering a fair result in this CAP negotiation. I will make that clear and I want that message to go out to all legislators here. We are advocating for a fairer CAP. We are using an historical payment system that dates back 20 years at this stage. Younger farmers who have taken over farms are, in many cases, depending on something their fathers have done before them. This is a time for change. There are hardships within certain areas; I do not disagree with that. There are ways of overcoming those. People and farmers need to hear the real facts. CRISS will deliver and convergence delivers for the majority of farmers. We need that point to come clearly across.