Ms Sinéad McPhillips:

I thank the Deputy. Overall, it is a fairly underwhelming simplification. I suppose it is good to get some ideas about what might be coming down the tracks in the next round of CAP. There is definitely a focus at European level on small farmers. Some 7 million of the 9 million farms in Europe are under 10 ha. There are some real simplifications for those farmers. Last year, there was a reform that meant those farms are no longer subject to conditionality and inspections, which is a much bigger deal for other member states than it is for us. In this proposal, there is a specific small farmers scheme payment, which was €1,250 but has now doubled to €2,500. While it would mean that the scheme is not introduced in Ireland, those farmers would get that payment instead of getting their direct payments of BISS and CRISS and so on. We do not think it is of major interest.

With regard to the GAECs, there are some changes to the GAEC standards in the proposal. When we were being consulted by the Commission, we asked specifically that GAEC standards would take account of any national standards that are targeted towards the same objective as the GAEC. That has been included in the Commission's draft regulation.