Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is. We know that.

The next issue is clarification of the decision about a national capping of the maximum amount of payment to any single farmer. Do I take it that, basically, the only option left as far as the Council is concerned is the capping à la the Commission only on a voluntary basis? If that is the situation, it is very retrograde. Furthermore, I am curious to know what type of battle the Minister waged to achieve even what he was seeking, which is the ability to have a national cap of €100,000 to any single farmer under the forthcoming CAP.

I congratulate the Minister on including the front-loaded or redistributive payment in the suite of measures that are now options in the Council document. Will he give details of whether the agreement specifies the level of redistributive payment that is achievable? That will be very important to protect the small intensive farmers, in terms of ensuring they get a very significant payment but that there is not a knock-on effect whereby the very large intensive farmers must also get it. Was there any minimum or maximum payment agreement? In other words, is there a proposal for a minimum payment in the proposals from the Council or was there any change or amendment of the internal convergence, which is based on the status quo and keeping as much as possible for those who have, and as little as possible for those who do not have? Was there any narrowing of that or is that proposal as intact as it was presented to me last spring?

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