Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 151: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her plans to implement the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food's Report on the ERS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23639/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The report of the Joint Committee covered a range of issues and I responded to it in detail. As I explained in my response, a number of the Committee's recommendations are precluded by the EU Regulations under which the current Scheme and its predecessor are operated. I saw some merit in certain other aspects of the Committee's report, specifically those relating to income limits and the maximum age of transferees in the current Scheme. However, this Scheme will close to new applications in December and the practical effect of any such changes would now be very small.

The Committee paid particular attention to two issues. One was the implications of decoupling for retired farmers who had leased out quota as well as land to transferees during the single payment reference period. I believe we have secured the best deal that we could for people in this situation, in spite of the fact that the Commission were unsympathetic at the outset. In family cases, where a farm reverted to the retired farmer at the end of a lease without any entitlements, a family member taking it over will have access to the National Reserve. Retired farmers in the current Scheme who farmed during the reference period can activate entitlements and lease them to their transferees; and at the end of the lease they can either sell the entitlements with or without land or lease the entitlements with land.

The other issue the Joint Committee focused on was the levels of payment under the two Schemes. The European Commission has repeatedly ruled out the idea of indexation in the current Scheme and has pointed out that the rate in the earlier Scheme was set at the maximum amount for co-funding that the Regulation allowed.