Mr. Colm Hayes:

There is a trade-off here in that the idea of a locally-led scheme is that it comes from the local area. We have some fantastic examples around the country. We had something like 120-odd applications and we could have gone with any one of them. Narrowing it down to 23 was a real challenge. Those 23 are the crème de la crème. The point is if we are going to design and implement a scheme on a local level, we will not get the efficiency of administration we get when we run a GLAS scheme out of Wexford for 50,000 people. That is the trade-off. It is an accepted trade-off across the EU for these schemes. Results-based schemes work. They allow local communities to engage in a really productive and innovative way with the CAP and the RDP. There is no question but that they will continue under the next CAP and we will certainly be a supporter of that.

The issue of forestry concerns and the balance of planting is not a CAP issue per sebecause the forestry programme runs outside the CAP programme. It runs for the same period. The national forestry programme runs up to the end of 2020 as well. The current thinking is it will continue next time around so there will be a national forestry programme because there is a public commitment by the Government in the national development plan to have a national forestry programme that is publicly funded from the Exchequer next time around. That is the thinking. That said, we see a lot of scope for the planting of trees under the agri-environment schemes in particular next time around for the very obvious reasons that the planting of trees delivers benefits in terms of the protection of water courses and biodiversity. That integration between the two programmes is something we are actively looking at. There is some planting of trees under the current GLAS schemes.