Mr. Tim Cullinan:

One of the questions the Deputy asked was whether we sent a piece of paper out to our members. All I can say is we have had numerous consultations with our members during Covid, although it has been difficult. We have had two rounds of regional meetings. We came out with six key objectives for this CAP reform. They were based on listening to our members on the ground. One of the areas Deputy Fitzmaurice brought up was the armchair farmer. If he can believe it, that was one of the key issues coming up when we were doing the meetings up and down the country. I explained earlier on that we have, in our objectives, an objective of dealing with armchair farming and long-term leasing. That needs to go back in and there needs to be a trading system around that.

I absolutely agree that we cannot afford any leakage out of this reform. What the Deputy says is right. The budget has been decreasing and this is the ultimate problem here. What we must do with the scarce resources available is to ensure they are going in the right direction. I am talking about targeted payments. We have been working on this for quite a while. We already have a targeted payment for the suckler cow and the ewe and we must continue with that. We have more funding coming into this. Members should remember that national governments must, at a minimum, co-fund up to 57%. We must ensure that happens and that co-funding is not mixed with the €1.5 billion from the carbon tax. That is absolutely essential because two things need to happen. First, we must have a proper environmental scheme and the money is now ring-fenced for that. Second, we can use more of the targeted payments in the Pillar 2 for a proper payment for suckler cattle and sheep. That is the direction we need to go in now. We must keep the money with the people who are doing the work. I could not agree more with that.