Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We fought hard to increase this as high as we could. We wanted it to be a lot higher. If we were running Europe ourselves we would have far higher payments in there as part of the overall European budget. As one of 27 we have to fight hard for it. When we brought the CAP home and got the chance to make decisions at national level on how we support it as a Government we stepped up to the mark in a way that had not been seen before with regard to the level of additional funding we put into pillar 2. This is reflected in various schemes such as ACRES. The Deputy knows there is significant engagement and uptake in ACRES at present. It will see farmers significantly increase their payments.