Mr. John Keane:

I will respond to the questions. I thank the Chairman, a man from my end of the world, for his kind words. In a broad way, the negotiations and trialogues are still ongoing, which means there are, essentially, three positions that we have to consider, that is, those of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament. From our analysis, the position of the Parliament is the closest to one with which we would agree on two key aspects for young farmers. First, the Parliament has supported having a minimum of 4% of direct payments for young farmers. We believe this is essential. The current allocation of direct payments in Ireland was up to a maximum of 2%. We commend the Department on having that in place. However, now is the time to increase the amount of funding that is made available for young farmers under direct payments and Pillar 2 payments. We may return to that issue shortly.

On the question of the forgotten farmers, but also, more broadly, the many young farmers under the age of 40 who are currently going to be excluded from supports going forward - we have already seen them being excluded from supports - the key area is the so-called five year rule under which supports are primarily focused towards young farmers entering the industry. We are incredibly supportive of supports for entry into the industry but the issue now, particularly in Ireland where we have seen a change in the entire model of farm succession and planning, is that this directly discourages young farmers who are taking on the role at an earlier stage. Both I and Mr. Fitzgerald, the chairman of our agricultural affairs committee, are in such a position. In spite of the fact that we are under the age of 30, we are no longer considered young farmers, going by the Department definition, because we have been farming either as part of a partnership or a joint herd number for more than five years. The position of the European Parliament is that this should be moved to a minimum of seven years. That is at least some positive movement to address the situation.

Outside of that, in terms of potential in the current negotiations to address the issue of forgotten farmers who have been farming for more than ten years, unfortunately the only area in which it appears this could be addressed is that of the allocation of the national reserve.

Again, that ties back into the total allocation of funds under direct payments. The allocation of direct funds or payments can either go to young farmer top-up, which would only be available under the current proposals for either five or seven years from establishment, or it can be allocated to the national reserve, which would allow sufficient for young farmers and new entrants and potentially for those farmers who are farming longer than that in a so-called third category. This third category has only been used a single time. The legislative position is very clear that all demands from young farmers and new entrants have to be satisfied before there can be a third category.

On GAEC 2, I will try to be brief and run through some of the elements because there is overlap. Our concerns with GAEC 2 are under two elements. First, we have seen the definition of what exactly this will change and appropriate management versus protection of wetlands. This is a significant issue for Ireland because the country has some of the highest organic matter soils. Second, there is the question about the definition of peatland soils and exactly what that will mean, because there is a variation in Ireland which is not seen in other countries. We have some drained farmable lands and others with high organic matter. Then we have the very extreme element, appropriate management of uplands and full peatland or bog-type soils. This is the essential element. The question here becomes the appropriate management. We strongly feel that high nature value farming, which is normally practised on the uplands in these areas, is the most appropriate management to protect these from a biodiversity and carbon protection point of view. Unfortunately, and this is an element that has been raised, under the biodiversity strategy there is a question about strictly protected definitions of designation. The strictly protected definitions essentially would block all farming activity. It would be a very extreme form of designation. We believe it would be detrimental not only to the rural economy in these areas but also very significantly to the protection of farmland birds and other forms of farmland biodiversity.

On the balance of support in terms of financial packages, there appears to be a willingness to continue, and we strongly support that. The young farmer top-up payments have been excellent and a major support. We would like to see them extended to seven years rather than five. However, the legislation that is currently under consideration in the negotiations allows for an installation aid type of package. We have encouraged the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and it has agreed, to assess the potential for that in the CAP strategic plan. This would be under Pillar 2 funding. We believe this is significant.

On the other question that is often raised about older farmers, getting the balance right and encouraging land access, there are no proposals on that at present. The reason for that and the complexity is that countries vary. Countries such as Finland and Germany have a designated older farmer pension scheme which has been in place for many years and which provides increased financial support. When we discussed the appetite for an older farmer retirement scheme or something similar with our members, their major concern has been, and will continue to be, the financial viability of some of those farmers. We prefer, and we have been a major force for, moving the question away from a succession model into a partnership model, which we find is a far more suitable method for encouraging access to land and with regard to the inheritance of land.

Thank you, Chairman, for your kind words in welcoming us here today.