Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I know what the Deputy is getting at and I have no difficulty with introducing a cap on payments. There is a proposal to do that. The current proposal from the European Commission is to propose a cap for single payments of €300,000. Of the 123,000 Irish farmers in receipt of the single farm payment, less than 0.2% received more than €100,000. That means only four or five companies or individuals will be affected by the cap being proposed. That is why I have not used a lot of political capital on this issue. We have really important issues that affect practically all farmers in Ireland where we need results around greening, the redistribution of the single farm payment within the State and maintaining the overall budget. My view is that it is inappropriate that anyone would get €300,000 from a single farm payment. It is important, however that we focus on what is crucial to Irish industry in these negotiations. So few farmers in Ireland are affected by this that I have not focused on it. I have made clear that my view is there should be a cap in place to ensure we spend money on those farmers who need it most.

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