Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister is very welcome. I wish him the best of luck in his portfolio. It is the first time he has been here. I think it is the first time I have talked to him publicly since his appointment. I wish him the very best of luck.

I will talk to the Minister a little on the issue of TB. I also have a few things on the CAP, ACRES, the derogation and GAEC. Maybe the Minister will comment on those and we will then spend the latter half of my time on TB.

I know and appreciate he said that CAP is very much at the negotiation point at this stage, and it is the MFF that is being negotiated, but there is talk out there that there may not be a dedicated CAP budget within the MFF. It has to be fought tooth and nail that there will be, and we know that setting out. Let it be good, bad or different, we need to know how much or what it is. The CAP has to ring-fenced in the MFF and it has to be increased, if it all possible. There has to be a two-pillar CAP.

I am 60 years of age. As long as CAP has been there, I have heard about a simplified CAP, and making the CAP simpler and easier for farmers to work, but it has got more complicated every time. A simplified CAP does not make sense to me any more. It is one of the words in the English language that I struggle with, as I do with even talking about a simplified CAP now. We want a CAP that is well-funded, that is ring-fenced money from the MFF, that has two pillars and has a strong emphasis on food security. We cannot take our eye off food security. We are now way down the track of paying money for what is valueless. We have to start producing food or it will come back to haunt us.

The Minister answered the questions on ACRES. Payments should be made sooner rather than later. I was asked to ask the Minister when people will be paid where payments are outstanding. He said he hoped it would be by June. Will he clarify, if and when the Department catches up and everybody is paid, it will then stay the pace? This is so there will not be a fall-off again in every subsequent year for the next two years, with payments that are left in the initial scheme.

I will comment on the derogation. The derogation is in excess of 170 kg N/ha. Not any derogation will do. We are talking 250 kg N/h here. That has to be loud and clear out there. I have talked to people in the industry and the business, who are a bit worried that the eye is being slightly taken off the ball in respect of the derogation, from our perspective. I know that is because we are re-forming after an election and everything, and no committees were active or whatever, but they are fearful that we are beginning to think that it is coming anyway and we are taking our eye off the ball on it and complacency-----