Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank multiple Deputies for raising this issue, which has been an issue for me for quite a while. I thank Macra na Feirme, which has been engaged in the issue long before it became a campaigning issue for some people, over the past number of weeks. Other farming organisations have been involved.

In 2008, the decision was made to shut down installation aid. Farmers were planning to get installation aid as part of their business plans. All of a sudden, the scheme was shut down and they found themselves without the assistance to get started that many of their peers had a few months earlier. In the new CAP, where we pushed hard to get positive discrimination in favour of young farmers to get more people young people into farming, the definition of young farmer was someone who came into farming within the past five years under the age of 40. This means many young farmers under the age of 40, who started farming between 2008 and 2010, missed out on installation aid and are now missing out on getting special treatment and top-up payments as young farmers. This group of farmers numbers in the hundreds, not in the thousands. I have been trying to find a way to get them into the category of young farmer but this has been ruled out by the Commission over and over again. There is a clear definition in the regulation.

We have looked at how we can use the national reserve to do it. In order to give someone preferential treatment under the national reserve, they must be in a category referred to as disadvantaged. There must be a reason to pay them extra and so we have been trying to convince the Commission, successfully, that this group of people who missed out on installation aid and are now missing out on being in the category of young farmer, are disadvantaged because they missed out on both supports. As a result, we can help them with the national reserve. That is how it will work.

If a farmer is in that category and his or her payment is below the national average, he or she can apply under phase 2 of the national reserve allocations and we should be able to increase the entitlements to the national average, which will make a big difference for many young farmers.

See this speech in context