Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for attending and making their presentation. The first thing that must be recognised is that in the 1980s, the same EU that the witnesses have spoken of, in respect of what it is looking for now, paid farmers around this country to knock every ditch and hedge down. Farmers basically had to get bulldozers and drive them into a corner. It is the same EU that is looking for farmers to do a full 3600 circle. In fairness, in most parts of the country, farmers are interested in having hedges; there is no point in saying they are not. Mr. Hickey spoke earlier about the different problems around the world.

It should be recognised that places such as Brazil are cutting an area the size of a football field every day from the lungs of the world. Mr. Hickey talked about the new CAP. My understanding is that, to qualify for the CAP payment, 4% of land has to be used for biodiversity. Some 4% of a farmer's land can either be idle or in hedges or such.