Mr. Michael Doran:

I agree and the challenge we have is to actually try to engage with and work with those to try to help. I was before this committee seven or eight years ago at the start of the beef data genomics programme, BDGP. There were similar concerns that the direction that the BDGP was going to remove the suckler herd. At that stage we were looking at it and the people who were going to be negatively affected. By working with people and trying to work towards it, that scheme actually had a clawback. If a person did not meet the criteria he or she actually had money clawed back from him or her. One thing that has happened in relation to this scheme is that by farm organisations lobbying the Department of agriculture, that clawback is no longer in place. Therefore if a person is short it does not mean previous money he was paid will be clawed back. He might only miss an element of a payment.