Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

3:30 pm

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Right now, on the basis of a proportional breakdown, we are still significant net beneficiaries of the Common Agricultural Policy. A total of 80% of the EU funds that Ireland gets come from the CAP. Unless we put additional money into some other fund from which we are equally the beneficiaries, we would become a larger net beneficiary if we had a smaller CAP. Again, that is not a very precise answer but it is clearly in our best interests, for a variety of reasons, to support a strong CAP, including the cold hard financial reason.

That picture will change as the next perspective changes. This is a moving target. In any case, as of now, our position is unequivocal from the Taoiseach to the Minister for Finance to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. There is a clear position on the restoration of the CAP.

On the previous occasion, we spoke about capping as well as distribution. Significant proposals have been produced. Committee members asked about the detail. The proposals provide that for payments over €60,000, there is what is known as mandatory degressivity. This means there is a proportionate cut in payments as they increase beyond €60,000. The minimum degressivity above €60,000 is 25% where the payment is between €60,000 and €75,000, 50% where the payment is between €75,000 and €90,000, 75% where the payment is between €90,000 and €100,000 and 100% where the payment is more than €100,000. This effectively means payments are capped at €100,000 and a progressive series of cuts are applied to payments above €60,000, but these are minima.

The last time around there was a similar configuration but the top figure was €150,000. The last time around we applied 100% degressivity to payments over €150,000. I am simply saying, without making any predictions about what will happen, that it would be possible under this configuration to apply a maximum cap of €60,000 if we applied 100% degressivity above €60,000. That is the first part.

The second part is the deduction of salaries and unpaid labour from the direct payments figure before we apply the degressivity. This is one proposal we have clearly come out against for two reasons. The first is that it completely undermines the proposal if we have to deduct salaries. In theory, if I was on €60,000 and I paid myself a salary of €60,000, then there is no cap. The second reason is that we have developed an efficient system for getting payments out to people at a time of the year when they need them. We make direct payments on 16 October and in December. Between those two dates we get more than €1 billion out to farmers. We have developed a good system for doing that. Frankly, if we had to do income tests and try to establish the value of unpaid labour on the farms on individual applicants, it would be most difficult. I echo what Deputy Penrose said in that I would not like to be on the side of the table trying to calculate that. Even if it was desirable, it is not a practical proposition. We are dealing with proposals; that is all they are.

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