William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in. There are 20,000 farmers in Ireland with less than 10 ha. Those 20,000 farmers are in those schemes. If those 20,000 farmers were offered something else, the money would have to come out of it. We will leave that as it is. Ms McPhillips can answer that question in a moment.

I would like to ask Mr. McGann a question. He is out there on the front line. I am confused about why this is coming out at this stage. Does this have something today with the CAP Pillars 1 and 2 eventually coming down? We were told at one stage that we would know what will happen by July. Why this far into the current CAP is there a proposal for a simple change such as this? I am worried.

I cannot see what benefit it is to a farmer to change from where he is at present. There is certainly no financial gain. I am just learning in this, the same as everybody else. There was mention of beehives. My neighbour keeps a good few beehives. I have them on the farm but they are not mine. Is it something like that, so people could switch but the money would stay the same? Are they giving people an opportunity to do something like that? Is that what it is about? I would love if the officials were able to tell us because they have information and they know things we do not know about what is coming down the tracks. They are over there and getting it all from those people. I would be a little bit nervous. I would love to know their thoughts about what is going on over there.