Mr. Tim Cullinan:

I thank the Chair and committee members for the invitation to address them today at a critical juncture in the negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. I am joined by Mr. Tadhg Buckley, my colleague from the IFA. As we are all aware, negotiations around this CAP reform are at a difficult stage. The talks in Brussels failed to find a resolution in the negotiations two weeks ago.

I will first address eco-schemes and the impact they will have on farmers. This is another way of redistributing funding from farmers. It is a fundamental change. Funding under Pillar 1 will be between 55% and 60% of the original funding, which is a huge cut. Under the current proposal, the national average will be a cut across the board and the new amount available will also be paid based on current national averages. It will be difficult for many farmers to get back the 30% that is being taken out. Any farmer who is farming with high environmental ambitions needs to be funded for that. If the EU has to get more funding to achieve that, so be it because that is what needs to happen. This is another way of flattening the payment.

The IFA has taken a position on convergence. We had extensive convergence in the previous reform when a position was taken that convergence would increase to 75% by 2027. That has been our position on the issue and the Minister took that position at the previous round of negotiations in Brussels. I am referring here to internal convergence. What we are trying to achieve is to keep farmers viable. This is very important with regard to convergence.

Funding from the national Exchequer is going to be important. I am referring to national co-financing. At a minimum, the Government has to fund up to 57% of Pillar 2 funding. We in Ireland have been good at developing schemes. We already have nine schemes in Pillar 2 and 33% of the money is going to environmental measures. To refer back to eco-schemes, given that we have these nine schemes in place, there should be a lesser eco-scheme in Ireland. That is a point worth noting.

On the good agricultural environmental conditions, GAECs, we are especially concerned about GAEC 2 because it has the potential to impact 300,000 ha throughout the country, not just in one area. My understanding is that all the lands that qualified for the basic payment scheme, BPS, under the previous reform will qualify again. Obviously, there is a word of caution around that. However, that is the position at the moment and we sincerely hope that continues.

We also have a proposal on the definition of “genuine farmer”. This is important because we cannot have any leakage from the budget in the current CAP reform. It is essential that all the funding goes towards genuine farmers, those who get up in the morning to do the work, whether it is calving the cow, lambing the ewe or ploughing the fields. This is essential. A farmer should have to show some financial output from the farm, whether on sales or other outputs. That is important.

On long-term leasing, if we want generational renewal, we must look after younger farmers and it is important that lands become available for them. We are looking for a proper mechanism for trading the entitlements of farmers who continue to lease out their entitlements after a two-year period. It could be a trading system or the farmer leasing the entitlements could be given the option to buy them.

The programme for Government includes a clear commitment from all three Government parties that the €1.5 billion from the carbon tax will be ring-fenced for a proper environmental scheme. This is essential. We have to be certain that that money is separate from the funding provided under national co-financing. Having that money available to develop a proper environmental scheme would mean more funding would be available in Pillar 2. We need more targeted payments. We need to get the suckler cow payment up to €300 per cow and the sheep payment up to €30 per ewe.

Another sector that is vulnerable in this reform is tillage. An environmental scheme must be put in place for the tillage sector. I know we have the straw incorporation measure but that needs to evolve and be further developed and a proper scheme is also needed. That is the IFA position. I will be glad to take questions from members of the committee.