Mr. Tony Murphy:

The figure was something like €206 billion; it was certainly just over €200 billion. We looked at it and stated that we thought €70 billion of it did not relate to greening measures. It is about how people classify expenditure and about the controls to make sure measures really are green. LEADER funding and the CAP will form a major part of the negotiations relating to the next MFF. Whatever they think is most appropriate for those they represent is obviously what the agricultural lobbyists will be fighting to defend.

I fully agree with the Senator on defence. It is not just defence, and sometimes people have that image. It is about cybersecurity, space and all sorts of different areas. We have a report coming up on cybersecurity and significant and large scale cybersecurity incidents. We have an audit team here looking at the National Cyber Security Centre. Ireland is in the sample this time, probably because of the HSE incident because it was a real case that has happened. It made sense to look at what happened and at what has been done to mitigate the chances of it happening again.

The negotiations for this MFF will be really difficult. That is just my personal perspective. From what we hear, the Danes are trying to finalise the structure of the budget by the end of the year. I would say that is very optimistic. Ireland will be in the midst of it all during our Presidency next year.