asked the Minister for Finance the gross receipts to Ireland from the EC in 1985; and if he will give an estimate of projected receipts for 1986.

Ireland's gross receipts by way of grants and subsidies from the EC budget in 1985 amounted to IR£1,112 million.

It is not possible at this stage to estimate with any accuracy what Ireland's gross receipts will be for 1986. However, I expect that overall our receipts in 1986 will equal if not exceed those in 1985.

Would the Minister not agree that the basic principles of the Common Agricultural Policy and the intervention system, as well as the price stability flowing from that, represent the best guarantee for Ireland of sustained receipts from that area? Would the

Minister agree that any other system, however introduced, in replacement or mitigation of the existing system is not likely to be as successful for Ireland? Would the Minister not also agree that there are damaging effects in the Exchequer absorbing receipts in the non-CAP areas such as the regional fund and the social fund, rather than allocating these moneys to specific projects?

I strongly agree that intervention is extremely important for Ireland and very valuable and that we should do everything possible to maintain it, as we are doing. As far as the other matter is concerned, one can pursue that policy only to the limits of one's financial ability as a country. We have some difficulty with what the Deputy is suggesting. In view of the fact that this country got £1,112 million last year from the EC, I am totally at a loss to understand what the Deputy's party are at in suggesting a renegotiation. A renegotiation will have no other effect than to put in jeopardy all these benefits. I am really puzzled that Deputy Lenihan, who is an astute politician, could have allowed his leader to make suggestions of such a foolish kind when we are gaining so much from the EC.

I do not mind a little bit of comic relief at all——

The Chair has not the same control over answering as asking.

But really, let us have less of the comic relief.

Deputy Haughey has repeated this a number of times. It is, frankly, amazing.

I would appreciate it if the Minister for Finance, of all people, understood that we are around a bargaining table and negotiations are ongoing as far as our EC partners are concerned and that we have to put our cards down strongly on that table. If the Minister wants to be associated with the Minister for Agriculture who runs away from that table and leaves his pack of cards face up so that everybody can see them, so be it.

The Deputy is to resume his seat.

To answer the Minister for Finance, the fact of the matter is that we must renegotiate the whole situation in regard to the Common Agricultural Policy and in regard to other matters of aid to this country and in regard to our whole approach within the EC because the EC themselves have devised an attitude and a policy in recent years where they have departed from and eroded a fundamental tenet of the Treaty of Rome which is the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Deputy is turning this into a Committee Stage debate.

It is in our interests that the EC we joined should be restored and that we restore our other partners within the EC to a due and proper regard for the tenets of the Treaty of Rome and the tenets of the Common Agricultural Policy and the other policies to which we subscribe within the Community.

The fact is that an attempt to renegotiate the terms of our membership would call into question all of our existing gains which would be extremely foolish.