Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House. I am disappointed that his senior colleague is not here, but no doubt there is a good reason for that. I presume he is not in the country and if he is not, I fully accept that he cannot be here. However, it is a pity he is not here because we now face a huge crisis in farming. The last Pillar 2 funding for the period 2007-2013 amounted to €4.8 billion, between State funding and European funding. Pillar 2 funding has been co-funded, with 53% coming from the EU and 47% coming from the Government. Under the rules negotiated by the current Minister, the small print shows that the new Pillar 2 could be as little as €3 billion. That is a potentially huge 40% cut in funding.

This is amazingly poor negotiation by the Minister. When he was talking about the great job he was doing on the CAP, one would have thought that the Minister would have been to the forefront during these negotiations, ensuring that national governments could not get away without adequate co-funding of Pillar 2, especially since Pillar 1 is 100% European funded, and these are the big payments. Instead of that, the Minister has signed off on a deal that will cost European farmers dearly. Governments across Europe, including the Government in Ireland, can reduce their input even though the European Union input is down 11% already. On top of the 11% across the board cut in European money, we now have the potential for a huge further cut by reduced rates of co-funding. Put in simple terms, what was €4.8 billion the last time could end up being as little as €3 billion this time. It is very difficult to understand how this was negotiated without it being brought to the attention of farmers.

When the CAP was announced, the Minister said that the general rate of co-funding is 53%, that is to say, 53% from Europe and 47% from the Government. Of course he did not stress that the environmental payments can be as low as 25% and that these environmental payments - including the DAS, which is considered to be an environmental payment under European terms - amount to 90% of Pillar 2 in Ireland. When we add in the measures that can be funded as low as 20%, we are at the stage where around 94% of the payments can now be funded at a lower rate of 25%. There is huge concern now that the full enormity of the sell out of the farmers of Ireland by the Minister has become apparent.

I need an assurance from this Minister of State this afternoon that, notwithstanding the ability of this very poor agreement to allow national governments to reduce their contribution to farmers enormously, the Government will actually co-fund Pillar 2 at a rate of at least 47%, against 53% from the European Union.

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