Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for taking time out of his busy schedule to appear before the committee, take questions and brief us. I have a couple of points on single farm payments. The Minister mentioned the gap between the overall figure for internal convergence and the Commission's flat rate proposal. Does he have any sense of how far away from the figure we had for internal convergence we might end up at? It is probably a guesstimate at this point. What are the positions of the Parliament and Commission on the definition of "active farmer"? What does the Minister think the definition will be after the trialogues?

The Minister outlined the different position of young farmers. Some are voluntary, mandatory or a combination of both depending on the different sides. I am mindful of the fact Ireland has been a key exponent of protecting young farmers and making sure we have more access to the market for young farmers. Have there been any discussions on encouraging farmers to retire or putting a scheme in place? Young farmers will not go into farming unless older farmers give way to them.

The Minister did not mention sugar. Has it come up under the trialogues? Concern has been expressed by local community groups which have dealt with applications for local Leader funds. I know this area is the responsibility of the Minister, Deputy Hogan, but I am mindful of the fact that the next seven years of the Leader projects are very dependent on Pillar 2 and rural development funding. I ask the Minister to expand on the current situation.

On the trialogue process, which was touched on earlier, and the role of Parliament, do representatives have the power to make final decisions or does everything need to go back to Parliament to be signed off on? If we meet the target of 20 June, what is the likely timescale for the next six months of the year? What will happen when the trialogues are completed? When they are completed what will the next six months entail for the Minister and his Department when we consider the menu of options before us?