Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I looked at the Minister's speech with amazement and dismay yesterday. As regards the flat rate or direct payments, one cannot tie oneself to a historical chance on a certain year, which was 2002. We should have an open and frank debate on this single payment method as to whether we link it to the present system, which is purely historical and as time goes on becomes more distorted, or whether we need to re-examine it. I do not know the answer but we should debate it.

When in government I always argued that one of the problems was that the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food could not see beyond protecting the present regime. I was surprised that the Minister did not see there are simple ways of dealing with some of the problems we are facing. When we were in government we proposed a payment of €150 per hectare where land was designated by the EU as either an SPA or an SAC. I understand that the current Minister has withdrawn that proposal from Europe, saying that farmers in areas that are totally constrained because of designation should be happy with €75 per hectare.

If Europe wants to protect the environment it will have to pay for it. In my view, under the disadvantaged areas scheme and under the AEOS scheme and any future REPS scheme, those whose land is designated over their heads should be given a higher premium payment than those whose land is not designated and if land is doubly designated, that is, as SPA and SAC, the extra money should be doubled again. It is outrageous that farmers have to put up with all these designations and all these limitations to what they can do. For instance, they cannot now drain a quarter of an acre of land and they are not compensated for doing so.

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