Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister made a point about small and medium-sized farmers, which is a bit of a misnomer. Will the environmental measures be capped at a certain size of farm? Someone could have a large holding of marginal land while someone else might have a much smaller holding of more productive land. If it is capped, it will penalise the person with the marginal land. For example, the Burren is productive and is renowned obviously, but it takes a sizeable acreage to feed a herd of cattle. Similarly, someone might have a large chunk of land in Slieve Aughty which looks fantastic on paper until one actually goes and sees the land. Someone with much smaller acreage could have more productive land. Capping it at a certain acreage or even having a sliding scale could be counterproductive to what the Minister is hoping to achieve.

See this speech in context