Dáil debates

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

3:00 pm

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

This question is about what I have just been discussing. The Deputy refers to the need to limit any reduction in the single farm payment for current recipients to 10% to 15%. I believe that figure comes from the Irish Farmers Journal of a couple of weeks ago following a farm talk I gave in Bandon in which I said I was hoping to try to limit the reductions in single farm payment support - outside the greening area; therefore, it is for the other 70% - to 10% to 15%, which would probably mean increases for others, perhaps 15% to 25% on average.

I was trying to get the message across that instead of having a drastic redistribution away from the historically productive sector of Irish farming to the less productive sector, although there is capacity for much of that sector to become much more productive, we would try to limit the transfer to make it more manageable. Many farmers will have taken out loans and made investment decisions on the basis of a single farm payment supporting their businesses. I do not wish to undermine the traditional productive sector of Irish agriculture because we want to achieve increased performance and efficiency from those farmers. However, I recognise that there must be some redistribution for equity reasons. One cannot have payments in 2019 based on productivity levels in 2002 and 2003. That would not be right either. This is about trying to manage the redistribution in order that the losers will not lose massively and the gainers will not gain to the extent that it will undermine the productive sector of Irish agriculture. It is difficult to get the balance right.

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