Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have updated the reference year this time around to try to make it as reflective as possible of current circumstances on family farms and on sheep farms. I picked 2017 because that is the year we had the most sheep in the country. I wanted to maximise the payments to farmers and to ensure the sheep welfare scheme would be the strongest support it could be. The committee will be aware I have proposed an increase from €10 per ewe to €12 per ewe as part of the CAP strategic plan 2023-2027. Many people had hoped for more, and while I would like to do more, this is a significant improvement on the outgoing CAP under which no schemes or programmes were provided for, with most of them evolving later on in the CAP. I am now programming this in for the full five years. In setting it at €12 per ewe and the reference year at a particular year, yet to be decided in regard to the next CAP, I am trying to find the most optimal way to facilitate take-up and participation levels as well.