Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Commonage is eligible, because it is agricultural land. I do not see an issue there.

Cross-compliance is the terminology used when agricultural payments are lost because rules regarding respect for special areas of conservation, SACs, or biodiversity are broken. I will come back to the Deputy with a proper answer on this, but it is my understanding that if a farm within an SAC blatantly breaks the rules there is probably a cross-compliance implication. In other words, the farmer could, potentially, lose payments. I will come back to the Deputy in writing with a more exact answer than that.

The Deputy's final point requires a response. The idea that we should take money from the rich to give it to the poor is a gross over-simplification of what the single farm payment is about. The single farm payment supports the production of sustainable food producing systems on Irish farms. We should recognise and reward the production of food, on a small scale on small farms and on a big scale on bigger farms. We should not penalise large farms because they happen to be efficient at producing food. The single farm payment recognises that producing food in Ireland and across Europe is more expensive than in other parts of the world, because of what our consumers demand of our farmers. They demand traceability, safety, inspections and limitations on hormone use in beef. They raise issues relating to climate change, sustainability, animal husbandry and all of the other things that are required of farmers in Ireland when they produce food. The single farm payment recognises the fact that those requirements make it more expensive to produce food. If we are to be competitive in terms of food pricing, consumers must pay something if they are going to demand those standards from food producers.

We have, and will have, a series of other mechanisms, under Pillar 2, to deal with issues related to the need to keep people on the land. We must recognise that in NATURA 2000 areas or SACs people have limitations put on them and that there needs to be some compensation for that. Deputy Kirk rightly raised those issues. From an environmental point of view, that is why we have disadvantaged areas and less favoured areas, LFAs. That is why we had REPS, which was a hugely successful scheme. We now have the agri-environment options scheme, AEOS, to follow on from that, because it is what we can afford at present.

We should not lump all these issues into the single argument that we need to take money from rich people and give it to poor people or take money from big farmers and give it to small farmers. That is not what we are at. The single farm payment supports an agricultural system and rewards people who are producing food responsibly and efficiently, as well as providing some support for people who are not able to do that because of the land they operate on. In the Common Agricultural Policy, as a package, there is a series of other tools to deal with the necessary social supports in rural Ireland, particularly in disadvantaged areas.

It is important that I make this point. The primary importance of the single farm payment, which is Pillar 1 money, is in supporting the growth and expansion of the agrifood industry in Ireland, predominantly by supporting farmers to produce food and to expand and grow. There will be some redistribution of money within Ireland from what has been referred to as the productive sector to what is referred to, I think unfairly, as the unproductive sector. It is an insult to say anyone's farm is unproductive.

We need to tailor a solution that suits Ireland best and allows us to do what we aspire to do in growing the agrifood industry. What the Commission is currently proposing will not allow that. That is why there is a flexibility issue in the distribution of single farm payment money. We cannot simply maintain the exact status quo based on historical payments that have a base year going back to 2002. We need to put in place a new system that works. We will be working hard to do that and we have some ideas that are already semi-developed in that area. We will be working with farm organisations, stakeholders and farmers, in discussion groups when and where appropriate, to get the balance right and ensure that we treat people fairly and allow the industry to continue to grow.

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