Mr. Joe Condon:

Most questions have been answered fairly conclusively. On the CAP, I would say that a capping of payments at €65,000, a degressive payment for larger farms and a redistributive payment to medium to smaller farms would possibly answer a lot of the problems relating to land abandonment. On the research issue, I would say that there is serious research required on the effects of designations on farming in these upland areas.

One other point I would like to comment on is our opposition to the carbon tax. I read the transcript from last week's meeting and it is pretty unanimous that there is opposition to it. I would call into question the make-up of the Citizens' Assembly that voted 90% to 10% for a carbon tax on agriculture, when one has a huge chunk of the population, including all the employees in the meat industry, close to 450,000 people involved in farming and processing. For such a proportion of people to vote for it, and for there to be such opposition from the agriculture side, tells me that there is some dissonance in that system.