Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. There have already been dramatic shocks that we need to address. It is good that a minimum payment was included, but my understanding is that €103 million must be realised as a result. The Minister has been working on figures, so I will work on the 2010 numbers on the basis of which the €103 million figure is calculated. They do not include deductions for young farmers, the national reserve, etc. We are discussing redistribution.

The next question is how to remove the money from farmers above the national average. We are not discussing something that will happen in 2015, but the endgame in 2019. There must be objective reasons for taking money from one group versus another. The system must be as objectively fair as possible by 2019.

The Minister has made available figures on stocking density per hectare - this is a fair reflection of productivity and is the best we will get - for everyone but tillage farmers. Using this as a measure, we should try to bring farmers in a similar output category - as we do not know individual outputs, we cannot work on that basis - to the same level of payment by 2019. There is no reason to pay someone more in 2019 just because he or she received many grants in 2000. It would be more logical to connect payment to average output per hectare of the relevant cohort. This would lead to a fairer single payment system, as the current system is riddled with inconsistencies and there is no relationship between productivity and euro per hectare. This is important, as many farmers in the 350-450 ha bracket are productive. I do not know why they should be penalised because of history as opposed to a rational reason.

Will the Minister confirm whether regionalisation is off the agenda?

Will he also confirm whether he is considering the single farm payment coefficient as regards different types of land? An acre would not be counted as an acre and a hectare would not be counted as a hectare.

My understanding is that the greening payment is for carrying out greening activities. Will the Minister relate that payment to something that farmers used to get or will it be made relative to the amount of greening activity they must undertake? If all farmers must go to the same amount of greening effort, will they get the same payment per hectare? Alternatively, will someone who used to get a large payment get more under this scheme even though he or she might be less green than someone in receipt of a lower payment? This is an important issue.

There is so much to discuss, but I will not delay the meeting for long, as this is our first cut at it. Optional provisions include the prevention of land abandonment and compensation for specific advantages. Is it intended to consider these for payment under the national reserve? For example, land abandonment could become a major issue in certain areas.

The battle in the next six years will be about the prices that farmers get. Unless we pay farmers adequately for the food they produce and unless they make a profit from production as opposed to the single payment, it will be impossible to reach the Food Harvest 2020 targets. In many sectors, farmers' prices are being squeezed and there are no margins in their activities. If this persists, the consequences for agriculture could be disastrous. This issue must be put at the top of the European and Irish agendas.