Talks on how payments might be structured under the new CAP have been taking place at EU level, and within the confines of the Department of Agriculture itself.

Unconfirmed third-hand reports suggest that one proposal set out a very basic payment for all farmers, with top-ups then being made for individual specified actions.

One thing that was ruled out early on was a suggestion that a means test be applied to the basic payment.

“Obviously, such a means test would have excluded too many of the Department’s senior officials who are farming themselves,” one of The Dealer’s caustic cronies commented.