Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

The Minister mentions the historical model of payments, and I acknowledge the speech he gave to the Seanad recently in which he expressed a preference for the retention of this model. What I took from that speech, however, was that the historical model would come under increasing attack and that it is not guaranteed into the future. That is the basis upon which the Minister could state, at least, that there is a degree of stability of income, but it is not necessarily guaranteed to continue if the model changes, unless the Minister states otherwise. If the historical model changes, will that compromise basic incomes to farmers?

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