Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would not agree with that, which is no surprise. The figures I have given to the Deputy I have also seen regarding stocking rates.

There is no justification for a farmer being on €900 or from €1,000 to €1,300 per hectare. Although the stocking density increases as the payment increases, in other words, there is a correlation between the most productive farmers and the highest payments in general, the difference between those on the lowest payments and those on the highest payments in terms of the stocking rate are not in the same ratio as the difference in terms of their supports. That is why we are committed to redistribution. People on the lowest payments will gain the most and people on the highest payments will lose the most.

We are not proposing to maintain the status quo. That was never the Irish model that I advocated. We are proposing to have a gradual redistribution of money that will take money from farmers who have the highest payments, even if they are highly productive, to ensure that farmers on low payments, even if they are not so productive, will see a move towards the average. However, we are going to avoid the type of shock treatment that Deputy Ó Cuív would like to see, whereby we would equalise everyone onto an average payment and one would see dramatic cuts to productive farmers and, by doing so, put farmers out of business.

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