Ms Sinéad McPhillips:

There are around 20,000 farmers in Ireland with less than 10 ha, as the Deputy said. The simplification package last year meant that those farmers are now not subject to inspections or penalties on their basic payments and so on. The proposed change this year in respect of the small farm scheme, as I mentioned in reply to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, is optional. We do not have to implement that in Ireland. Those farmers under 10 ha are currently qualifying for BIS, CRISS, eco-schemes, ACRES and so on. There is no barrier to them being in those schemes. Our view when we were setting up the CAP strategic plan was that farmers were better off in that full range of schemes rather than getting a single payment of €1,250, which has now moved to €2,500. We will certainly examine it but on the face of it, we do not think there is any advantage in moving to that system. On the proposals for the next round, as the Cathaoirleach said, there will be a fuller discussion when we have those proposals. Talking about it now would be speculation. I will bring Mr. McGann in now, particularly on the beehives point because he is the expert on that.