Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Whip's office for making time in the Dáil schedule to discuss what is a really important topic, namely Ireland's national plan under the CAP. The CAP is one of the EU's longest-standing policies, firmly embedded in the Treaty of the European Union.

The agrifood sector remains one of our most important indigenous industries, employing 169,000 people and supporting €19 billion worth of exports. Experiences over the past few years, from the Covid pandemic to the war in Ukraine and the current global trade tensions, have underlined the vital importance of this sector. Food supply chains have proved resilient, but we should not take our food, or the people who produce it, for granted. The CAP is crucial to the sector's resilience and competitiveness.

Under the current CAP strategic plan, which started in 2023, we are delivering funding of almost €1.9 billion a year to 120,000 Irish farmers. It is a critical support for thousands of farm enterprises the length and breadth of Ireland. Over successive reforms, the CAP has adapted to changing policy priorities, supporting farmers to achieve sustainability in all its dimensions while ensuring the availability of safe, nutritious food for EU citizens.

I am firmly of the view that agrifood needs to be at the top of the EU political agenda. The sector is a major one for the EU and member states. It is a central pillar of EU policy, relating to food security, rural development, farm incomes, climate and biodiversity, social cohesion, and rural youth. It also contributes to the EU's broader strategic objectives, including competitiveness and strategic autonomy.

While issues such as defence and mitigation have risen up the policy agenda, the contribution of the CAP cannot be overstated. We are currently about halfway through the implementation of the CAP strategic plan for the period 2023 to 2027, and I will open today's statement with a brief overview of the progress to date on this implementation. I will also provide an update on the development of the CAP after 2027 and the recently announced second CAP simplification package.

Ireland's CAP strategic plan, CSP, for the period 2023 to 2027 sets the framework for how the CAP operates at a national level. The CSP has a budget of €9.8 billion over five years. More than 60% of that, which is just under €6 billion, is targeted at supporting farm incomes. Over a seven-year period, the funding is almost €1.2 billion higher - an increase of nearly 30% - than in the previous programme, and since the start of 2023 my Department has paid out over €3.7 billion on CAP schemes.

The Pillar 1 direct payment schemes are primarily area based. The basic income support for sustainability, BISS, provides over 120,000 farmers with a predictable income support, based on the number of hectares they farm and the number of entitlements they hold. Providing a direct income support to Irish farmers underpins their continued sustainability and viability. It provides vital support for farm families across the country and, through the significant multiplier effect, to the wider rural economy. It provides a baseline income and is an essential risk mitigation tool for farmers, protecting them from market volatility.

Environmental sustainability, which was a renewed focus for this period, is supported through a number of environmental actions in eco-schemes, ACRES, organic farming and straw incorporation, among others. The level of engagement with these schemes is a testament to the commitment of farmers to protecting and enhancing the environment. Farmers are custodians of the land and their actions to improve biodiversity, water quality, soil health and fertility are critical. Over 97% of the farmers in Ireland are participating in the eco-scheme, delivering national environmental benefits, such as space for nature. For the 2024 scheme year, over €300 million was paid to farmers under the eco-scheme, with actions covering almost the entire utilisable agricultural area, UAA, of Ireland.

Generational renewal is a strong priority of this CAP strategic plan, and the support available to young farmers has tripled in the current period. Young people are central to the continuation of a vibrant and sustainable farm sector in Ireland. The family farm is the heart of agriculture in Ireland, and I am a strong supporter of assisting the next generation in taking over the farm when the time is right to do so.

We now need to consider how to support and encourage young people in the sector in the future. These efforts will be guided by the commission on generational renewal in farming, which was set up last year. I look forward to receiving the report of the commission in due course. I also expect to see some initiatives from European Commissioner Hansen, as outlined in the EU's Vision for Agriculture and Food.

The Government has provided the highest ever level of cofinancing for Pillar 2 rural development in the plan for 2023 to 2027. Pillar 2 includes interventions aimed at improving the economic and environmental sustainability of livestock farming, for example, the €250 million in annual support for areas of natural constraint, ANCs, the suckler carbon efficiency programme, a sheep improvement scheme and a dairy beef welfare scheme.

There are investment supports available for all types of farms through targeted agriculture modernisation schemes, TAMS, across a wide range of categories to improve sustainability on farms. Higher grant rates are available for women and young farmers – a 60% rate – and for renewable energy and nutrient storage.

In ACRES, the €1.5 billion agri-environmental scheme, we aim to address the more complex environmental issues through targeted actions at farm and landscape level. The scheme has encountered significant issues which I am acutely aware of as it sets a new framework for delivering on more complex environmental actions, in tandem with farmers and advisers. It was not acceptable to me that more than 14,000 farmers were unpaid when I took up this role at the end of January. It has been my focus to resolve these issues, get farmers paid and ensure that these issues do not arise again in future years in order to restore farmers' confidence in the scheme. We continue to make progress on the outstanding files and I am determined to see them resolved as quickly as possible. Issues such as transfer of contracts and alignment with the BISS as well as issues with scorecards have contributed to the delay in the making of payments. Work is ongoing to resolve these issues, progress is being made and there are now weekly payment runs. Payments have been finalised to almost 97% of ACRES tranche 1 participants for their 2023 activities, to a total value of just under €250 million, and 90% of participants have been paid their 2024 advances. The actions of the 54,000 farmers in ACRES will make a significant difference and we have reached some major milestones, including 2,400 km of new hedgerow planted, which is enough to go from Cork to Kiev; 800,000 native trees planted, about the population of Dublin, or a little less; and 6,300 km of watercourses being protected, 17 times the length of the River Shannon.

In other areas, such as organics, we have seen a tripling of the amount of land farmed organically since 2020. With a fivefold increase in the budget, we reached 225,000 ha in 2024 and are over 240,000 ha so far in 2025. This is just a flavour of how the implementation is delivering on the objectives set out in the €9.8 billion strategic plan, which extends to all aspects of agriculture and rural life in Ireland.

We have a strong record in Ireland in maximising the drawing down of EU funding and we are consistently in the top six member states for drawdown, with "leaving no euro behind in Europe" a guiding principle for us.

The implementation of the CAP strategic plan, CSP, has continued with close consultation with all the relevant stakeholders, who regularly have opportunities to comment on the progress. While broadly speaking the plan is performing well, its implementation has not been without challenges in some areas, some of which I have mentioned already. There has been additional complexity for farmers and administrators as the new CAP bedded in in terms of both the new rules and the new approach required to deliver on national and European environmental targets. It has led to challenges and higher administrative costs, as well as delays in some payments. This situation is not unique to Ireland and has been replicated across Europe in recent years. I have been vocal about the need for simplification, particularly in my role at monthly meetings of the council of agriculture ministers, which is known as the AGRIFISH Council. The Commission is listening and has been conducting its own consultations with farmers and farm bodies across Europe.

Last year, the European Commission brought amendments to the CAP legislation that introduced a number of targeted changes. Governments have been given certain flexibilities in the implementation of the conditionality standards, particularly as to how the rules should protect space for nature and what way crop rotation and diversification should work.

Also introduced was a new exemption for farmers who farm on less than 10 ha. This change removed some 20,000 Irish farmers from inspections and penalties for conditionality.

This week, Commissioner Hansen announced a new draft CAP simplification package, bringing forward proposals for some further changes to the legal framework. I welcome any proposals that will simplify and reduce the administrative burden for farmers and national administrations. As with any new legislation, we will need to carefully examine the details of the proposals, and we will evaluate the potential and possible impact for Ireland. The simplification proposal will have to go through the process of co-decision, with input from the European Parliament and the Council. My Department has inputted to the Commission consultation on simplification proposals. On conditionality, my Department asked for the removal of GAEC 2 from the regulations, on the basis of overlap between these requirements and other national and EU legislation. However, the removal of GAEC 2 has not been included in the proposal, so GAEC 2 will remain a conditionality requirement for 2025, as previously announced. The simplification proposal provides that costs arising from GAEC 2 compliance can now be included in the calculation of costs for eco-schemes or agri-environmental schemes. In Ireland's case, all funding is already fully committed to the existing eco and ACRES schemes, and the GAEC 2 standard, as recently introduced in Ireland, is based on existing national legislation and usual farming practices. Therefore, it will have minimal impact on farmers' day-to-day operations.

This is a mandatory condition of the payment of the BISS, and EU regulations require all member states to have a standard in place from the start of this year. Failure to have done so would have exposed Ireland to significant and recurring financial penalties.

There has been much consultation on the implementation of the standard, with many differing opinions. However, now that the European Commission approved our proposal on 30 April, farmers can have certainty on the requirements for 2025.

My Department has written and issued text message alerts to all affected farmers. The Department has also published a technical note and provided additional information to our public and private farm advisory services.

I wish to make some remarks on the future of the CAP. The European Commission is expected to publish the draft Common Agricultural Policy post-2027 regulations later this year. This will likely be shortly after the publication of the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, proposals in July, which will set the EU budget over the post-2027 period. The draft CAP post-2027 proposals will be informed by a range of major reports published recently at EU level, including the strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture, published last September; the AGRIFISH Council's conclusions on the future of CAP in December; and the Commission's Vision for Agriculture and Food, which was published in February.

While the exact timing remains uncertain, the Irish Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2026 is likely to be crucial in progressing the legislative framework for the next CAP. As set out in the programme for Government, this Government will fight at EU level for a well-funded CAP which can deliver on the multiple objectives of the sector. There will be significant pressures on the EU budget post 2027, arising from issues such as defence and migration. I am working closely with my colleagues in the EU to build a consensus around maintaining a strong CAP budget in order that it meets both new and existing challenges and opportunities. The CAP must maintain a stable income for farmers, support sustainable food production and contribute to climate and environmental ambitions.

My four CAP priorities for the future CAP are a CAP that is more straightforward for farmers; a CAP that is more flexible and responsive; one that has an appropriate balance between all elements of sustainability - economic, environmental and societal; and, crucially, a CAP that has an adequate and dedicated budget, in order that it can retain the full toolbox of current interventions. The CAP has been the bedrock of the European project and has played a transformative role in Irish agriculture. I am committed to ensuring that it is protected and that delivering for farmers remains at its core.

I know that concerns have been articulated by farming organisations about the timing of the CAP proposals and the timing of the MFF. The two of them coming close together is not a bad thing; it allows us to talk about the CAP in the context of the ongoing discussions about the overall financial budget for it. We do not need CAP to be left behind and decisions to be made as part of that MFF process, but either way, whenever Commissioner Hansen comes with his proposals, whenever the EU finalises its proposals on the MFF, I will be ready and my Department will be ready. The Government stands ready, we are engaging already and we have had a very long deliberative process with colleagues. I am putting the foundations in place now, and have been doing so since I was made Minister, to make sure that our European colleagues - my 26 colleagues on the Council of Ministers, the other 26 ministers for agriculture across Europe - are aware of what our key priorities are in Ireland and the type of CAP we want. I have monthly bilateral meetings with colleagues from other countries to understand their priorities, working together on building trust and relationships. I will be in Warsaw next month for the informal meeting of those ministers, when we get to know one another a little better and understand one another's perspectives in order that we can design a CAP that works for our farmers and our food industry that is so important to our economy.

I appreciate the opportunity to address the House on this and I look forward to hearing colleagues' contributions over the afternoon.

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