Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

5. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the consequences the current failure to conclude an agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework will have on proposals to reform the farm payments system. [21655/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This is a very good question about the impact a failure to agree the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, might have on the proposed CAP reform. As holder of the Presidency, we are trying to finalise the European budget with the European Parliament, which must approve it, before the end of the Irish Presidency. We are also trying to conclude CAP reform and the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, reform. Obviously these matters are intertwined because approximately 38% of the EU budget is the CAP budget. It is a very significant amount of money at approximately €370 billion over the next seven years. It will therefore be difficult to finalise a political deal on the CAP if we do not have a clear picture of the budget and how it will work.

We made a great deal of progress in the last few days, when both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste injected some urgency into the system in terms of trying to find an accommodation between the concerns of the European Parliament and the decision of the European Council on the MFF. We are hopeful that can be achieved by the middle or end of June, which will make it easier for me to secure a CAP deal by the end of June as well. However, even if we do not secure an agreed MFF, I still believe we can agree a great deal of the CAP reform. The MFF is not going to change dramatically. What is under negotiation at present is the budget for this year and how that will be accommodated in the context of a budget for the next seven years.

I am hopeful we will be able to do both. That is the plan.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister suggested that the European Parliament will now negotiate on the budget. Its evident opposition to the proposed 3.5%, which is approximately €35 billion in cuts to the MFF, has clear implications for the proposals to cut the overall CAP allocation. The majority in the European Parliament has argued that the overall budget must be targeted to promote growth through stimulation. It has also opposed the cuts to the CAP. This clearly sets it at odds with the European Central Bank and with the current German domination in EU policy. It is also clear there is more support for a more radical shift on farm payments in the European Parliament than among the dominant states within the EU. Would the Minister agree that more radical parameters at EU and national levels need to be set for CAP reform in order to win the approval of the European Parliament for the MFF?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The member states that contribute to the EU budget have already made a decision on how much they are willing to spend for the next seven years. That is very unlikely to change. Extra money is required to complete the budget for 2013 and how to deal with that and where the money will come from are under negotiation at present. The European Parliament is also seeking some other flexibilities. Even though the European Parliament would like the budget to be bigger, it is very unlikely that in the negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council there will be a significant increase, or any increase, in the overall budget because of how difficult it was to get prime ministers to agree on the amount of money their countries were willing to contribute to that budget over the next seven years. It is in the flexibilities the European Parliament has been seeking and some of the other policy-related issues it is seeking to influence that we will find a solution. I certainly hope we can do that. Everybody realises that the stakes are very high if we do not.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The European Parliament's proposal was that the minimum payment received by a farmer ought to be 65% of the EU average payments. The initial Commission proposal was designed to move in that direction as well. Will the Minister be open to the renewal of negotiations to bring about such a change, to ensure that a small minority of EU and Irish farmers do not receive a disproportionate share of farm payments?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That is exactly what the negotiations are about, how to redistribute within a country and the flexibility to be given to countries while at the same time ensuring there is significant redistribution. We do not want a figleaf with regard to the redistribution of money. There are people who got a raw deal under direct payments in the past, because of their position during the years when entitlements were formed. For whatever reason they did not have the productivity in those years to be able to build up a decent entitlement. There are also new entrants into farming and young farmers who have very low payments. There are people on very poor land who have very low payments. We must ensure those payments increase quite significantly. However, we must also factor in the reality that many farmers are very productive and are investing in further growth, expansion and innovation. They are using their single farm payment to do that and have borrowed on that basis.

There should not be such a dramatic redistribution that it would fundamentally undermine the productivity of many farmers in Ireland. We are trying to manage the redistribution. Clearly, the more one gets in a single farm payment at present, the more one will be asked to contribute to redistribution and the less one gets at present, the more one will benefit from that. Whether there is a mandatory or voluntary minimum payment is still up for discussion. There are other elements countries will be able to use such as, for example, a payment for the first 30 or 32 hectares. If countries wish to adopt that approach, the three institutions do not have an issue with that. We will know the options we have by the end of June, and this country will have to use the options that best suit the Irish agricultural system. We will have a debate once we know what tools are available to us.