Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Wynne for her comments. I will certainly be engaging now very comprehensively with farmers right across the country on the flexibilities that I delivered and it is important that we have those flexibilities at national level so that farmers can participate in framing our national plan that works for our country and that they have a role in that. This is very important to their incomes for the coming years and it is important that we had national capacity to frame that as opposed to it being decided at European level.

One of the key things I achieved and on which I very much set the agenda both at national level here and at European level was ensuring the capacity to significantly reduce the maximum payment under CAP from €150,000 in the current CAP to bring it down as low as €66,000 in the next CAP. That is something on which I will also be engaging with stakeholders over the coming period.

It is important that we ensure that CAP works well for farmers particularly on the eco schemes and while these deliver additional benefits it must ultimately be money that ends up in farmers' pockets. That will certainly be a key objective of mine on framing the final plan and in working with everyone it has affected.

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