Mr. Paul Dillon:

It is important to remember that the applicant is making a declaration on or around 15 May in respect of the land he or she is buying on for payment and is declaring that the land is eligible. The warning is clear: if the land has been burned after 1 March, outside the burning season, the applicant should not declare it as eligible.

The second point is that we always look at all these cases individually in terms of calculating the amounts of money involved. There will be a new CAP and that will determine how eligibility and the rules will be applied. That is something we can factor into the discussions and consultation with regard to how this is to be treated in future. However, our advice is strongly in line with what we have now. If the person has declared land and the person should have known that it was burned, then the burden of proof rests with that person. It is a totally different way of approaching it.