Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Deputies Wynne and McNamara. First, to address Deputy Wynne, as I said to Deputy Carthy earlier on, I find it ironic listening to Sinn Féin being so insistent on Dáil involvement on the CAP strategic plan when it was its party's position that all of this should have been agreed at European level, that we would not have a role and that our hands would be tied on that. I fought hard to ensure that we would have the flexibilities to be able to frame our own national plan and to have farmer, stakeholder, and indeed Oireachtas involvement in shaping that and making those decisions.

On the issue of lowering the payment, that is something that I laid out at European level to ensure that we could bring it in. My objective was to bring it to €60,000 and €66,000 was the level achieved. I welcome the Sinn Féin support now for the position I had previously laid out on this.

On Deputy McNamara's point, he is completely correct. The co-funding on this is going to be very important and is something that I am engaging with my Government colleagues on and I will be doing everything I absolutely can to maximise this position. We also have the programme for Government commitment on the carbon tax which will be in addition to that.

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