Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, but to get to the heart of the issue, land that qualified under the biophysical criteria is now, because of the fine-tuning, being excluded from the scheme. There is not a huge number of such cases, but my understanding of the appeals process is that farmers have no hope of winning an appeal, which is extremely unfair. If the land qualified under the biophysical criteria, we are obliged to ensure the farmers concerned are made eligible under the scheme. The Minister of State said farmers' lands had overcome their disadvantage. The criteria were used and the farmers showed that the lands still met the biophysical criteria and the 60% threshold; therefore, the fine-tuning is changing the goalposts. As I said, I am not laying the blame at the door of the officials on Kildare Street because they have done all in their power to ensure the maximum number of farmers qualify, but I am laying it at the door of those in Brussels. To introduce this fine-tuning to take farmers who have satisfied the physical criteria out of the scheme is wrong and the appeals process will not rectify the position. As I said, when there is a review, there are always people who are unhappy, but the farmers in question have a ustifiable case. They have extra costs of production which, to me, makes their land eligible for ANC payments. It is wrong of those in Brussels to introduce this fine-tuning. The clear understanding of farmers on the ground was that the biophysical criteria were to be the only determining factors. The Minister of State was right when he said the last time there was a review of disadvantaged areas, as they were formerly known, there were many criteria that could take farmers out of the scheme. Even population density was used as a reason for inclusion or exclusion. That was also very unfair. As I said, there are farmers in district electoral divisions who have the misfortune to be located beside intensive farmers and who are being excluded from the scheme, which is extremely unfair. The review taking place must allow the farmers who met the biophysical criteria to receive payments. It is a big ask, but it is in Brussels that we must win this argument. We need to take it back to Brussels and say we have a small number of farmers who meet the biophysical criteria but who are being excluded because of stocking rate. That is not fair.

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