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

I should have said at the outset that my ambition is to try to ensure that those who have a payment retain the payment and that those who would have felt aggrieved, given a number of pockets of the country felt aggrieved with the previous process, can find a solution in this context. That is not an easy objective but it is my opening position.

The Deputy asked about areas with specific constraints. Areas can be designated as eligible for payment under the scheme on the basis of a combination of biophysical criteria, to which we alluded earlier, meeting certain thresholds where one criterion on its own has not lead to the area being designated as eligible, or of a case being made that eligibility for the scheme is necessary to conserve or improve the environment, maintain the countryside, preserve the tourism potential of the area or protect the coastline. Those are the kinds of specific constraints that can be invoked to retain or include somebody in the refinement process.

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