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

I take it that, even though the money from the basic payment scheme is coming out of the new programme, the scheme rules are likely to remain more or less as they are in 2021. My understanding is that after 2021, whatever replaces the basic payment scheme and greening could be different, even radically different, from what we have. The scheme relating to areas of natural constraint could also be different, as could all the rural development schemes. Have we any idea, from preliminary papers that are probably floating around the system, of the post-2022 shape of the schemes and the changes, particularly their impact on farmers and farmers’ incomes, because that is obviously going to become a concern over the next two years. Is it going to be radically different and are there going to be a lot of conditions that might make it difficult for some farmers to access these schemes and keep their payments going? The Minister might give some indication of how these schemes are beginning to take shape in Europe. No doubt there are discussion papers floating around the system, as there always are, and my experience was that 90% of what they produce at the beginning is implemented at the end. The Minister might give us some insight into that.

See this speech in context