Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Matthews for a comprehensive report into CAP reform. On the last points made by the professor, certainly for many farmers in Ireland, the intensification of agriculture has meant that fewer farmers are farming the land. I have always felt that the Irish model, and to some extent the British model, where there is the family farm and livestock are free to roam and are grass fed, is unique. We have those advantages. I feel that in terms of an EU agricultural policy, every effort should be made to protect and enhance that, because it is a key thing. It is also what European consumers want. Whatever reform emerges should be focused on ensuring that emphasis is put on the smaller holdings, the family farm and that type of production unit.

I understand what Professor Matthews is saying regarding payments per hectare. It is hard to envisage anything that will work for the farmer that is not a payment per hectare. That is the problem we have. It would be interesting to tease that out. I understand that in CAP there is the environmental sector, the greening measures and all that stuff, which many farmers avail of. However, many farmers also find that the red tape that comes into it can cause a huge degree of frustration for them, because they feel they have to jump through many hoops to get a relatively small amount of money. Certainly where I come from, it pushes them into a position where they end up abandoning the farm, planting the land and stopping working it. It is a tragedy, because it is a permanent change of land use, and it means that that land will never be used for productive farming again, and there will never be a community living in that area again, because it is such a low labour intensive form of production. If CAP reform is to work from an Irish perspective, it has to be about delivering the maximum payments to the family farm and the farmer who is on the most marginal land. If we are going to try to do that, I would be interested in hearing the views of Professor Kelly as to how an alternative to hectare-based payments might work, because he said if it was not on a hectare basis, it could be more targeted. If it could work, I would hope that it would give the Irish farmer an advantage which he or she does not have at present.