Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur with much of what has been said in this debate. The west has been mentioned often. I represent a midlands constituency and there has been a particular price problem for the beef and grain sectors this year. I know this has to do with the vagaries of the world production system for grain. We cannot do much about some of those things but where we can we must act.

The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, Pillar 2, has been finalised but there is great disappointment in County Laois that under the last round the single farm payments to a few farmers, fewer than the fingers on my hand, received between €150,000 and €200,000. That is obscene. It should have been capped and we asked for it to be capped at €50,000. That is a huge problem.

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