Mr. Michael Moroney:

We are part of the European Confederation of Agricultural, Rural and Forestry Contractors, CEETTAR. We have also sought some information from Europe. We understand that, under the previous TAMS grant, contractors were eligible under the agricultural and rural development fund support provisions under Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013. That provided a business start-up support for activities such as farm contractor. However, we also understand that it was the choice of Irish Government authorities not to include support under Article 19 in the Irish rural development programme. I will quote from the reply by the European Commission to Petition 0284/2017 to the European Parliament that was delivered in 2017. It listed contractors as being eligible under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. It reads:

However, it has been the choice of the Irish authorities not to include support under Article 19 into the Irish Rural Development Programmes (RDP). The Irish farm investment scheme referred to in the petition is based on Article 17(1)(a) of the Regulation (EC) No 1305/2013, which allows support only to farmers or groups of farmers.