Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Report on Developments in EU: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

2:15 pm

Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

Yes, on Natura and the limit. In the course of the approval of the rural development plan, there was a long discussion with the Commission on limits generally in GLAS - the €5,000 and €7,000 limits. It was quite a difficult and protracted discussion which ended up with the EU agreeing to an approach that is now encapsulated in the proposal. The way the EU views it is that we are offering the farmer a €5,000 or €7,000 package rather than a limit as such. In practical terms it comes to the same thing but the way they are seeing it is we put €7,000 on the table and say a farmer can have it if he or she does certain things. That includes Natura farmers and what they have to do. The EU does not look at it as a limit on the number of hectares. On that basis, it was able to accept it.