Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress made to date in the Common Agricultural Policy negotiations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29488/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is right to ask for an update on CAP reform. We have reached the end game in a decision-making process that we commenced in January at the start of our Presidency. I am flying to Brussels this afternoon which is one of the reasons I will need to leave questions a little earlier than normal - I also have a Cabinet meeting. I will meet the Commissioner tomorrow and the Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. Together we will try to map out a route to a decision by Wednesday or Thursday of next week, I hope. The final Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting of Ireland's Presidency will start in Luxembourg formally on Monday morning, but it will effectively start on Sunday morning when we will have trilateral meetings with Ministers and the Commission to try to finalise the bottom lines and negotiating priorities for individual countries and Ministers.

We have invited the European Parliament to come and be part of the Council meeting, if one likes, and part of the negotiations at that Council meeting. This is a first and has never happened before but we have never done this before. We have never had 27 - soon to be 28 - countries deciding on a Common Agricultural Policy reform process and in an equal process with the European Parliament and European Commission. We hope that on Monday and Tuesday in that Council meeting we will make substantial progress in agreeing the Council of Ministers final negotiating mandate taking account of the concerns of the Commission and the Parliament so that we will be in a position to go to Brussels to have a final trialogue next Wednesday, I hope, with the European Parliament to conclude a political deal on the Common Agricultural Policy, all going well. That could then be confirmed by the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, which hopes to have a meeting in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday evening. That is the scheduling and process.

The Deputy is very familiar with the key issues, including greening, internal and external convergence, young farmers, market management, crisis support, sugar, milk quotas and the other things. They are being addressed through four different regulations that are all being negotiated at the same time. We planned for 34 trialogues to get to a landing zone or a compromise on all of these issues. We have had 31 of those so far and two more will take place this week with, hopefully, the final trialogue next week.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is well over his two minutes, but he will get further time in answering the supplementary questions.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We are on schedule for a decision next week, I hope. We cannot take that for granted as much work remains to be done. However, we are on schedule and I would be hopeful we can get the job done before the end of next week.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Minister confident there will be agreement on the four regulations?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I would be hopeful.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Will a minimum payment on the single payment form part of the agreement? Will the Minister be able to achieve an option of a reference year of either 2012 or 2013 - in other words an historical reference year rather any future one?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I will not give the Deputy any certainties now in terms of the outcome, but I believe the final compromise is likely to have a minimum payment. The negotiation is on the level of that minimum payment, which obviously has an impact on the level of redistribution between farmers in terms of the internal convergence model that Ireland has essentially designed and has been accepted by the Council in principle and forms the basis of the compromise towards which we are now moving. I have spent much time with farming organisations discussing this issue. I hope the final agreed compromise is one that can allow Irish agriculture to progress in the way in which we want it to.

Ireland is probably the only country seeking a reference year in the past rather than in the future. I do not understand why other countries are not as concerned as I am on this issue. However, I will continue to press for the setting of a reference year that does not impact on speculation or changed behaviour anticipating a reference year in 2014 or 2015. In March we successfully made the case for the option of a 2012 or 2013 reference year and I will continue to make that case up to the end of next week.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Before I ask my second supplementary question, I welcome and congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes. I know his commitment to farming and I am sure he will do an outstanding job in the new role he has been given.

Would the Minister not agree that his proposals on internal convergence and greening do not reflect productivity, if productivity of livestock farms is measured by stocking density, by natural nitrogen or organic nitrogen output per hectare and so on? Based in Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine figures the farmers getting either more than €400 per hectare or €500 per hectare are only on average about twice as productive as all of the 50,000 farmers who get less than €250 per hectare, in other words an average of €125 per acre each. The Minister is basing his argument on productivity and active and productive farmers that we have heard perpetually from the Minister and certain farming organisations. The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine figures do not bear out his argument and show very high levels of productivity from the farmers who are getting very low payments.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Deputy to ask a question, please.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Would the Minister not agree that the relativities he is trying to protect have no relationship to productivity?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I would not agree with that, which is no surprise. The figures I have given to the Deputy I have also seen regarding stocking rates.

There is no justification for a farmer being on €900 or from €1,000 to €1,300 per hectare. Although the stocking density increases as the payment increases, in other words, there is a correlation between the most productive farmers and the highest payments in general, the difference between those on the lowest payments and those on the highest payments in terms of the stocking rate are not in the same ratio as the difference in terms of their supports. That is why we are committed to redistribution. People on the lowest payments will gain the most and people on the highest payments will lose the most.

We are not proposing to maintain the status quo. That was never the Irish model that I advocated. We are proposing to have a gradual redistribution of money that will take money from farmers who have the highest payments, even if they are highly productive, to ensure that farmers on low payments, even if they are not so productive, will see a move towards the average. However, we are going to avoid the type of shock treatment that Deputy Ó Cuív would like to see, whereby we would equalise everyone onto an average payment and one would see dramatic cuts to productive farmers and, by doing so, put farmers out of business.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Minister, we are over time on this question.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I will not allow that to happen, I have not allowed that to happen and the final result next week will not allow that to happen either.