Mr. John Enright:

The reason we are bothered about the eco-scheme is that it has been created by a 25% reduction in everybody's payment. All farmers starting out are facing up to a 40% reduction in their payment when account is taken of the different schemes, the eco-scheme, CRISS, the young farmers' scheme, budget cuts etc. That is from where we are starting. The figure we have on Space for Nature is that around 60% of farmers will be over 10%. We certainly would have got 60%. What we find with these figures is that they change over time.

On cow banding, it started off that 15% of farmers would be in band 3. We now are now hearing a figure heading well over 20%. These things change and they normally change in the wrong direction for farmers. Why do we bring up milk recording and solar panels? We need to give farmers options in relation to getting funding. This is a reduction in their income to start off with. We need to give them options. Solar panels are certainly a very strong environmental measure. Milk recording has a big emphasis on anti microbial resistance. There really is nothing in the CAP that addresses that issue. We felt that milk recording was a very strong one under the eco-scheme. It was available to farmers and we incentivised farmers to go for that option.

We certainly hear what is being said on Space for Nature. The figure we got was not 91%. It was certainly below that. We need to give farmers options. There are other options, using GPS fertiliser spreaders, for example, but that is a €25,000 or €30,000 investment. This is not an option for many farmers. I know people could use a contractor but not every contractor has that equipment.

Trees or hedgerows could be planted. On inspection, all of those trees have to be alive. If 50 trees are planted the hope is that they would all survive but the reality is that they will not. The same applies to hedgerows.

There is an option for arable farmers but that does not suit every farmer in the country. We felt that there needs to be a better menu there to suit farmers and give them the opportunity to carry out measures on their farms that help the environment and anti microbial resistance. I hope the figure of 91% is right but certainly that is not the figure that we got Deputy Fitzmaurice.

Regarding the question on TAMS----