Mr. Vincent Roddy:

I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for the questions. I do not know why there is not awareness. I do not know whether it is necessarily due to the smaller number, and it is declining. Perhaps it is down to how the means test is considered. This is a big factor. I know it has been said a good bit but we do need to find a system to accommodate the fluctuation in farming incomes. With regard to the stamps, I know there were changes in the rural social scheme prior to 2012. I am not sure whether they included the stamps. I am not too familiar with it.

With regard to the disregards for the environmental schemes it depends, as Deputy Ó Laoghaire outlined, but the average for ACRES is approximately €6,000. It depends on the ACRES stream and this is a rough guess. On the ecoscheme we are speaking about €60 to €70 per hectare. For a 30 ha farm this is approximately €2,000. We have always said, of course, and we emphasise it, that farmers on designated lands, where options have been limited because of EU law as applied here, are being left behind. This has to be accommodated somewhere. I do not know whether it is necessarily for the Department of Social Protection but we believe this should be a consideration. We look at the other schemes such as the basic income support for sustainability, BISS. The average BISS payment in the country is approximately €150 or €160. There is also the complementary redistributive income support for sustainability scheme, which has an average payment of €43 per hectare for the first 30 ha. I do not know whether this answers the question.

Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned the universal basic income. I want to clarify that we are speaking about 500 places and not 5,000.