Mr. Paul Savage:

It is always easier to be wise in hindsight in terms of what might have worked and might not have worked. We tried to maintain the integrity of the overall system by proceeding in the normal way in terms of the co-funding element with the national financing. We made the decision in early 2024 that we had to make an interim payment. That interim payment was essentially paid out of national funds and we then caught up in terms of the co-funding, out of EU funding in 2024. We adopted a mechanism that allowed us to take the pressure off farmers at the time who were obviously waiting on their payments that had not been forthcoming from their participation in 2023. So that €4,000 or €5,000 that we made available to those people served the same purpose. Effectively we paid them upfront. When we had calculated the full amount due, in terms of the value of the normal ACRES contract, we reconciled that against the money that they had been paid upfront. In effect, it was a means to take the pressure off farmers in the short term until we resolved definitively in the long term.