Mr. Paul Savage:

The proposal is for degressivity to take effect from €60,000 upwards. As far as that goes, we have applied fairly and vigorously over the past while the convergence and degressivity requirements that existed previously. Effectively, up to now we have implemented a de facto cap of €150,000. We do not see the difficulty with that being dropped. Under the regulations, €60,000 is the point at which degressivity starts. The European Parliament has said that cap should be at €100,000. The bottom line would be that the principle is well established. We do not have an issue with it. As part of our analysis and our discussion on this in the coming months, we will be examining the impact the various levels and the layering of that degressivity might have in the context of the Irish approach.

As the Deputy knows, the discussions are ongoing. Capping is one of the issues that is outstanding. When we come to look at the modelling of the future CAP and what it might look like after 2021, once the proposals have become more mature and there is some more certainty regarding where we are going on that, we can start to model the precise impacts in more detail.