Teagasc director Gerry Boyle said he would be surprised if there was no Knowledge Transfer (KT) programme in the next CAP.

Boyle also speculated that, in the event of a hard Brexit, the scheme could be reactivated as a way to compensate farmers.

He expected that some farmers who joined just for the financial incentive would drop out of discussion groups.

“Hopefully other people who joined and found they were getting a benefit from it will stay on and they’ll pay us the fees that will compensate directly.

“Obviously, the farmers who had been members of discussion groups are more likely to continue. So the fees that we were being paid from the scheme, there won’t be a problem getting those directly from those clients.”