Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the latter point on proper funding, it is something that the Government is committed to. In the programme for Government, we have provided for an additional €25 million in ANC payments in 2018. I appreciate that will not go all the way to make up the cuts in disadvantaged areas that were introduced when Fianna Fáil was last in government, but it is a step in the right direction.

The critical timeline is that farmers must have the knowledge of the outcome in order to inform their 2018 basic payment scheme application. I expect it will be several weeks before we have a draft outline of maps which have the biophysical criteria superimposed on a map of Ireland and which show the areas that are included or excluded. It is my ambition, in so far as is possible, to ensure that anybody who currently receives a payment holds on to it.

I cannot definitively say what the biophysical criteria will be. The State is obliged to apply the new criteria. As I said, the timeline for the publication of maps which will inform the process will take several weeks. There will be consultation and an appeals process before there is a final outcome. The critical timeline is that this matter must be completed to allow sufficient time to make farmers to submit basic payment scheme applications in 2018.

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