Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the likely outcome of the common agricultural policy reform on Pillar 2 payments to farmers in disadvantaged areas. [48739/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The future system of payments to farmers in disadvantaged areas forms part of the wider negotiations on the reform of the common agricultural policy. As negotiations are still in progress, it is not possible to say with certainty what the outcome will be.

Under the Commission’s proposal less favoured areas, LFAs, which are known as disadvantaged areas in Ireland, will become known as areas facing natural or specific constraints, or ANCs. As I mentioned to Deputy Ó Cuív earlier, designation of the ANCs is proposed to be determined by eight soil and climatic criteria. These are grouped under four headings, namely, climate, climate and soil together, soil and terrain. They include low temperature, dryness, excess soil moisture, limited soil drainage, unfavourable texture and stoniness, shallow rooting depth, poor chemical properties and slope.

The Commission proposals are quite controversial and have not had an easy passage through the Council and the preparatory groups. This dossier precedes by some years the CAP reform proposals. Following criticisms from the Court of Auditors, the Commission made a proposal in 2005 for the use of common objective criteria for designating less favoured areas but the proposal was rejected by the Council. It was decided at that time to maintain the previous system and the Commission was mandated to review the scheme with a view to presenting a proposal for the future designation of LFAs. This review was under discussion in the Council for some time prior to the presentation of the CAP reform package and was incorporated into the package.

This is a very important issue for Ireland as the total area designated as disadvantaged is almost 75% of Ireland’s total land area. From an economic perspective the less favoured areas scheme is particularly significant, contributing to the support of in excess of 100,000 Irish farm families, whose ability to farm is restricted by the physical environment, in particular the impact of the prevailing wet and cold climatic conditions in Ireland.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

At EU level, in overall terms I consider the Commission’s proposals of using bio-physical criteria to be laudable but I believe there is a need to broaden the scope of the proposed criteria and to give member states more flexibility in designating areas. My Department has conducted extensive analysis of the impact of using the eight criteria. The results show that while there is no major shift in the total area designated in Ireland, there is a considerable change within the totality, with areas not previously designated now included and other designated areas excluded. In some cases the designation is very difficult to justify. I am reluctant to provide the Deputy with details of the areas that might be affected because I am very conscious this is a protracted negotiation and at this point in time we are very far from a conclusion. I assure the Deputy, however, that I will seek additional flexibility in the designation process and in the timeline for the implementation of any changes to ensure there are no abrupt or significant alterations to the conditions of the current scheme.

It is clear to me that considerable further work will have to be done before we can agree a satisfactory outcome on this dossier. The intention is to complete this work within the timetable for CAP reform. As the incoming Presidency, Ireland will do its utmost to facilitate a successful outcome.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to raise several points which were not covered by the Minister's reply. The perception exists that these schemes are not properly targeted, or at least there is a lack of clarity with regard to what precisely is being targeted. As I understand it, there is also a risk that the newer member states will place a big demand on Pillar 2 because they will be heavily dependent on these payments. Therefore, it is all the more necessary to protect Ireland's pillar 2 allocation.

With regard to disadvantaged areas, I find it increasingly difficult to answer people who ask me what exactly are disadvantaged areas, and what exactly Europe and the Irish Government are trying to do. People farm land where, whether for environmental reasons or because of the nature of the land, it is not possible to have good stocking densities. People receive letters because they have fewer than 0.3 units per hectare and they ask me what is meant by disadvantaged status. What supports should be made available to those in this situation? Given the dissatisfaction with the new environmental programme are there any plans to introduce a broader scheme such as REPS? The Minister will agree that what we need to do is preserve family farming, and many people in the west and north-west are working land which is difficult to work and where high productivity is difficult.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Commission wants to answer the Deputy's question on what is disadvantaged and what is not. Instead of taking the approach used in the past, whereby the criteria were very general and a line was drawn splitting the country, biophysical criteria will be used and measured in a scientific way to qualify for a disadvantaged area payment. These criteria include soil type, moisture, temperature, depth and stoniness. In principle, we agree with this approach. The problem is in its practical implementation, which will not be easy because all of the 130,000 farms which could potentially qualify must be measured, which is very difficult to do.

This has been kicked into the Common Agricultural Policy reform process, although it was an issue under discussion before that process began. It will be very divisive because many countries such as Ireland have many farms in disadvantaged areas or less favoured areas. They want to retain the classification system because payments can be drawn down for those farms. Therefore, this is a very difficult political issue. If we do not address it, we will have to start breaking up parishes by separating farmers with disadvantaged land from those without it. We need to find a compromise that is both practical and workable and which will have the maximum number of farmers in Ireland receiving payments for having to farm in disadvantaged areas.