Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He is absolutely right. We do need to bring in large number of farmers because this will create a critical mass and allow for significant engagement, knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer work. I certainly concur with that.

With regard to the current design of the scheme, the average farm size in the scheme across the board is in the region of 40 ha. They are relatively small farms. There are also smaller farms in the scheme and not many large farms. The scheme is capped at an area-based payment to a certain hectarage so it so the payment does not keep increasing. The further people go into it, the less they get. In a way, it is designed to support smaller and medium farmers. We really want to encourage all farmers to join the scheme. There is a great market for tillage and organic arable production. These farms tend to be larger. I do not want to rule anyone out. I concur that we need many farmers in the scheme.

See this speech in context