Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My position at the Council of Ministers has been to maintain a 20% minimum threshold in terms of the eco-schemes. The Parliament is pushing for 30%. It is important that we try to ensure we maintain the basic payment scheme farmers get to support them to produce top quality, healthy and safe food, and also to do that in a way that is consistent with good environmental practice. Within the new CAP a minimum of 20% will go to the eco-schemes. I will be trying to frame them in a way that ensures that while we have eco-schemes and farmers must make a contribution in terms of complying with them, they retain the value of the payments they previously received.

Working within Pillar 2, we will look at putting in place programmes that reward farmers for greater environmental ambition and delivering on biodiversity and climate change initiatives, as well as ensuring it delivers new income streams for them.

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