Ms Bridget Murphy:

To the question whether the current system is serving our members, we would have to say "No". Our hill sheep farmers are high nature value farmers. We expect them to do both environmental work and production while being paid for production, which is limited, as our stock are management tools on mountains. We do not have the luxury of putting very heavy, bigger animals up on a mountain. They must be light and lean to work on a mountain. We earn off production but we are providing a management service instead. The CAP document, however, does not get to grips with that. In fact, one of the new good agricultural practices, the good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC, refers to peatlands having to be kept in a good condition before we can even receive a Pillar 1 payment. Keeping wetlands, peatlands and boglands in good condition takes a lot of resources, information and skill. It cannot be a precondition for getting a first payment. It must be further down in the ecoschemes. It would be possible to say something along the lines that the bogs should not be degraded, but it certainly should not be that we must maintain them in good condition to receive the Pillar 1 payment.