Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is very important to implement a definitive set of upper limit payments to avoid what happened last year, for example. We know that obscene payments were received by some individuals during the last CAP cycle, which some have called criminal. While the average smallholding and farmer struggled to make their vocation viable, reform is well overdue. The fact that the Minister has avoided responding to the call for the CAP strategic review to come before the Dáil does not exactly inspire confidence. Sinn Féin has and will continue to call for 100% convergence. If it was in place for the upcoming CAP cycle, for example, there would be an additional sum of more than €3 million streamed into the county of Clare. Can the Minister now commit not to deviate from the 10% front-loaded payment and to resume convergence in 2022 on the understanding that it is an incremental process and that we will need several years to reach that target? The fact that last year just 20 farms and 20 enterprises received €3.6 million when we know wealthy businessmen received €414,000 of European money is astonishing.

See this speech in context