Mr. Brian Rushe:

I am accompanied by Mr. Michael Biggins, chairman of the rural development committee and Ms. Rachel Maloney who is the policy executive with the rural development committee. I will go through some summary points of our statement given that the committee is taking the opening statements as read.

We are all aware of the importance of farm schemes to farmers particularly those in vulnerable sectors and the massive dependence of those sectors on direct payments. In terms of CAP, direct payments make up 118%, 124% and 159% of cattle finishing, sheep, and suckler beef farmers' total income respectively. The real fear we have in terms of the new reform is the effects that it will have on those farms and farm incomes. The big losers in terms of convergence are not farmers with huge payments or farmers covering huge hectares of land, they are the farmers with the high payment per hectare but the low overall payments. These two measures, convergence and CRISS will decimate those farms' income.

The BPS is paid out to 122,500 farmers. It is critical in any new scheme or new CAP that the same levels of payment or the same advance levels of payment in terms of the 90% that we saw this year that was reported to the charter is achieved. We would be worried with the increased complexity, particularly with eco schemes, that it would result in delay in payments from the Department. That will not be acceptable.

We were there before and we do not need to go back there. Regarding the eco schemes, there is some flexibility in terms of space for nature with the measures that are there. There are probably more farmers getting eco schemes than they thought. However, for those farmers who will struggle with space for nature, tree planting, using the GPS fertiliser spreader, the extensification and reduction in nitrogen, they are bringing them in only one direction. That is towards a reduction in production. You have to step back and ask yourself what farmers face when income is reduced due to measures introduced with the basic payment scheme, BPS. Should we be encouraging them to reduce production as well in terms of what are further negative impacts on income? Regarding the agri-climate rural environment scheme there is huge fear in terms of how many people can get into the scheme. Everyone is aware of the backlog in applications. It is bureaucracy heavy and there is a massive fear among farmers who will exit the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, this year, and will not get into ACRES in 2023, that they will be left without a payment while they wait to get into it in 2024. We are calling for a commitment that farmers who do apply and fail to get into ACRES in 2023, through no fault of their own, will get an advance payment to support that income loss in advance of them getting into the scheme in 2024. We are aware of approximately 60,000 advance expressions of interest with Teagasc, but there is only capacity for approximately 30,000 applications.

Turning to the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, as has previously been stated it has been very positive for farmers who have put in almost €400 million of their own capital in terms of on-farm investment. However, we have to be straight about this, the current payments and reference costs are in no way related to the reality on the ground. It is resulting in farmers stepping away from TAMS and not applying or not going ahead with projects. When reference costs were in sync with actual costs it made a lot of sense for farmers to get involved in TAMS to invest in their farms. However, it is so far behind now that it needs to be reviewed immediately.

On supports for the suckler and sheep sector, which are two of our most vulnerable sectors, we have been calling for overall payments and supports to the suckler sector of €300 per animal, and supports for the sheep sector for €30 per ewe. This has to be delivered under pillar two for those farms to continue contributing economically to their communities. They are two of the sectors that will be hit hardest with the new reforms and it is vital that they get the support they need. The level of support being offered to organics is positive and a large amount of money but we need to make sure we are not leading farmers down a dead end in terms of the market that exists for those payments for that product. We are aware that in the dairy sector the organic price is not matching the conventional price, yet they are exposed to meal prices above €900 per tonne. While the levels of support are welcome and for those farmers that enter they are welcome, we need to make sure that a market exists for the product.

My final point is on the charter of rights and its importance in terms of delivery on CAP in a timely fashion. The last charter led to increased efficiency from the Department in terms of delivery on payments, and it is critical that the new charter negotiations are started immediately, in advance of any new reform.