Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Gleeson for his presentation, and I note that not once in it was the family farm mentioned. We started off with 300,000 farmers when we joined the EU. We have 120,000 now and the number is falling. There does not seem to be a policy to ensure that we protect the family farm.

At present, although Mr. Gleeson says now that there may be a roll-over of it, approximately 80% of the funding goes to a small percentage of farmers. If one looks at the information that came out in Agriland last week, those in certain parts of the country get on average twice what farmers in another area get. Will the Department ever realise that there are parts of the country where one will not be able to keep a youngster engaged in farming?

We talk about bringing in schemes to try to keep youngsters engaged. Is it not recognised by Europe and the Department that there is no way we will keep youngsters in farming if they are only getting €3,000, €4,000 or €5,000 in the single farm payment. The witness talked about €150,000. I have been in Europe. Europe will tell us it is up to the member state to decide what it can give. Why is there not an agenda in Ireland to increase the single farm payment to €50,000? Europe has said clearly to us that it is up to the member state to do what it wants. Why was the maximum area for applications to the young farmers scheme put at 90 ha? We were told Europe had said that but I found out that France, Wales and other countries had set it at 25 ha and 30 ha. Why do we not bring in an average payment? I was in Brussels and talked to people with responsibility for the scheme and that is exactly what they said to me. If we roll this over, the reality is we will lose more and more farmers. My understanding from the figures I have looked at is that Britain pulling out will cost Ireland €100 million in CAP. Is it not the case that we are under ferocious threat from the eastern bloc countries? Will they take a bigger slice of the budget? Is Britain actually our smallest fear in this situation?

The witness mentioned the climate. Is he saying we will be promoting renewable energy, whether wind or anaerobic, to farmers? Will there be new types of payments for that? How will environmental schemes be introduced? I met some of the witnesses during negotiations for the programme for Government. We were told there would be a review of the CAP payments in 2017, but that did not happen. We understood the current imbalance, which results in some people getting €150,000 and some getting €2,000, would be sorted out. That did not appear to happen. The years 2010 to 2015 and 2008 to 2010 were looked at but there was a category of farmers before that who walked away from farming. We talk about bringing in young farmers. That group of forgotten farmers was never sorted and it does not look as though it will be sorted. Is there any budget there for them? The Department has said that as a result of elections or whatever political thing is going on it could be 2023 when it happens. Many of these farmers will just throw their hands up in the air and we will see the demise of more farms. Is the €25 million that was agreed for the ANC going to hill areas or lowland areas? Has a decision been made on that yet?