Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)
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Deputy Ó Cuív is proposing that we cap payments at either €50,000 or €100,000. He states that a payment of €100,000 is too much as there would be no incentive to go out to work; he suggested the figure be capped at €50,000. The reason I do not agree with that, and I ask the officials to take this on board, is that people in receipt of payments of the order of €100,000 or €50,000 went out and were productive. Deputy Ó Cuív's argument, which he contradicts later in his presentation, is that the payments should go to the more disadvantaged areas. This will not increase production and will encourage people not to increase production in those areas. I propose that part of the flat rate payment under the CAP proposals will be used to encourage production, and that we have a coupled payment either through Pillar 1 and Pillar 2. I know we do not want to return to coupled payments, but I think this will increase production in certain areas, be it sheep or beef. With the removal of quotas in 2015, we could have a situation where the beef industry will suffer if milk prices continue to rise on the world markets. There will be male animals from the dairy herd which will have to go through the system. We will reduce the quality of the beef herd. I think we should look at some form of coupled payment for the beef and sheep herds through Pillar 1 or 2. It is important to maintain the increase in the quality of animals in the beef herd. We cannot let that significant progress we have made in the quality of the herd in the past six years slip due to the fact that quotas will go and the emphasis will be on dairy. We must encourage beef farmers to stay in business. I was very alarmed by an article I read in the Irish Farmers' Journal that states that beef will not be profitable in the next five years. What will encourage farmers to stay in beef production when one cannot guarantee prices in world markets but we can guarantee a support through coupled payments? I compliment the Minister on the way he has succeeded in getting so many countries to join us in getting rid of the flat rate payment. We will have to have some flat rate payments, we will also have a "greening" payment, but I think we should have a coupled payment in order to encourage production in certain areas.