Mr. Michael Moloney:

On GAECs 5, 6, 7 and 9, no soil testing will be required. We do not envisage any requirement in these cases. GAEC 7 covers crop rotation. The change here is most certainly welcome since it gives the farmer an option to meet this GAEC standard with crop rotation or, as in this case, with the option of crop diversification. We very much think this is going to simplify the controls compared to what we have now. GAECs 5 and 6 deal with tillage and arable land and, in relation to GAEC 6, livestock. What this is allowing us to do is to bring in temporary exemptions. This is a bit like what we did in 2024 concerning GAEC 7 and crop diversification. We introduced force majeure exemptions because of the wet harvest, which led into the spring and seed shortages. We implemented force majeure measures, therefore, to allow farmers to sow one crop or ten crops, whatever it was they were able to do to get crops into the ground, which is what we wanted to happen. This temporary exemption allows us, in a case where we were to end up in another bad harvest situation, to bring in certain exemptions. These could include the requirement to have to put in cover crops by 15 September. In the case of conditions being bad, it would allow us to extend this date, so that ability gives us this degree of flexibility. We absolutely do not envisage any extra burden here. The simplification here is actually probably removing the burden.

To answer the Senator's first question concerning why other member states did things, in the preamble to the regulations, in the context of this amendment, there is a reference to 65% of farmers in Europe having less than 10 ha. Effectively, then, 65% of them are now outside a control system and the associated penalties. In Ireland, our farms are larger than 10 ha and the figure in this regard is 15%. This is the exact figure based on our analysis of the last three years, because this is the best way for us to have looked at it based on the basic income support for sustainability, BISS applications. It was 20,000, up or down 400 or 500. In effect, these farms are outside conditionality controls, inspections and penalties. From this perspective, the change is welcome.