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 getting approval of the rural development programme from the EU; his plans to publish a copy of the issues raised by the EU in relation to the rural development programme; the nature of these issues; when a reply will issue to the EU on these matters; if there will be public consultation before the reply issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43095/14]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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We were told that the rural development programme would be in place well before the end of the year. I understand that observations were made to the Department. Does the Minister intend to publish those observations and will he clarify when the response from the Department to those observations will be submitted to Europe?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I ask the House to indulge me before I answer that question. I wish to pay tribute to the former Deputy Joe Walsh, who died in recent days. I think he was Ireland's longest serving Minister for Agriculture and he made a very significant contribution to modern agriculture in this country. He is someone I knew well and respected very much. I wish to pass on my condolences to his colleagues in Fianna Fáil, his friends and family. It is appropriate to do that during questions on agriculture on the day after his funeral.

On Deputy Ó Cuív's question, the draft rural development programme, RDP, was submitted to the European Commission on 3 July 2014, a number of weeks in advance of the regulatory deadline. Due to the Commission’s heavy workload in dealing simultaneously with 118 RDPs, its formal observations on the draft RDP, which were due on 3 October 2014 were not received until 20 October 2014. Since then, my officials have been systematically working through the various informational, technical and policy matters raised by the Commission. A detailed response to the Commission’s formal observation has issued.

The next step in the approval process will be a period of bilateral discussion with the Commission. It is difficult to predict exactly how long these discussions will last, given the resource constraints in the Commission and the need for the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development to co-ordinate with the range of other directorates-general which have commented on the draft RDP. Following agreement of the RDP via these bilateral discussions, the RDP must go through a formal adoption process in the Commission.

It would be a matter for the Commission as to whether it wishes to make available a copy of its observations. Those observations were essentially structured in a question format. There were 266 questions asked, many of which were technical in nature, seeking clarification on costings, legal references and so forth. If it would be helpful, I will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, along with officials from my Department, to go through the questions that were asked, identify areas that may be problematic and so forth.

I am still hopeful the RDP will be approved before the end of the year but that timeline is now very tight. As Deputy Ó Cuív knows, that has implications in terms of launch dates for new schemes and so forth. My priority is to get this done as quickly as possible, but obviously because a lot of money is being sanctioned by the Commission, we need to make sure that all of its questions are answered.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. Will he outline why he cannot publish the observations? While I welcome his offer to come before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I believe that members of that committee would be at a disadvantage if they did not have a copy of the Commission's observations. Has the Minister asked the Commission for permission to give Oireachtas Members the Commission's observations and the Department's replies to same? I understood that the change in Government was all about openness and inclusivity, particularly with regard to Oireachtas Members, the elected representatives of the people. Will the Minister explain why he cannot publish the Commission's observations and the Department's response to them?

The Minister also said that the timeline is very tight in terms of getting approval before the end of the year. Can I take it that the green low-carbon agri-environment scheme, GLAS, will definitely not open before Christmas? It seems we are already a month or two behind where the Minister had hoped we would be at the beginning of the process.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The direct answer to the Deputy's last question is "No". We will still be pushing for the adoption of the RDP and the opening of GLAS before the end of the year. That said, there are some things that are outside of my control. The Department had a very quick turnaround time following receipt of the questions from the Commission because we are very anxious to expedite this process and get decisions made and approval granted as quickly as possible. I have made that known to the new European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development whom I met this week. We are still pushing hard to stay on schedule and to get the RDP approved as soon as possible. We think that it is still possible to do it before the end of the year. We want to open up GLAS as well as several other schemes, the targeted agricultural modernisation, TAM, schemes in particular, in January and February of next year. We are anxious to get on with that but obviously the timeline is tight.

On the question of publication, I can publish the observations if I want to. I do not think there is any legal impediment to doing so and I am willing to publish them. However, I am not sure that publishing 266 questions, most of which are very technical or legal, will add anything to the process. Instead, I propose that I appear before the aforementioned committee to go through the different areas on which the Commission has asked questions, to contextualise some of those questions and outline our responses to them. I do not have any fundamental objection to publishing the observations but I do not want to give an impression that there is some fundamental problem here when there is not. It is normal that there would be a lot of questions asked of a document as large and as detailed as our RDP.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I would have presumed, from my experience, that there would be a lot of questions. Indeed, I have never seen a situation where the Commission did not have an awful lot of questions. None of this would faze me, I have to say. I would not make a big issue of it. I would like to see the questions, the direction and the responses. If they are legalistic, we will deal with that too because we are legislators after all.

Does the Minister intend to review his Department's proposals for both GLAS and the areas facing natural constraints, ANC, scheme in the context of commonage areas?

Is the Minister willing to meet concerned Deputies about this issue? There is huge concern in the counties that have large amounts of commonage. Their calculation is that the proposals put forward by the Minister will take €17 million per annum out of the commonage areas and transfer it to other parts of the country.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I believe the Deputy is referring to the calculation that some people have made if the Commission had implemented what it was proposing for a flat rate payment across the country.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It has nothing to do with that.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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It would never have happened, because the country would have been broken up into different regions, with different flat rate payments for different regions. That is a spin some people have been putting on this-----

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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That is the spin the Minister is putting on it. Check that with the Commission.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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-----and it is not based on fact. As the Deputy knows, we have held meetings regarding the concerns of commonage and hill farmers about qualification for single farm payment, stocking rates, problems of destocking and under-grazing, eligibility for GLAS and the process of applying for GLAS payments. We have spoken about that a number of times. Deputy Kyne has also raised it with me repeatedly.

We are trying to show as much flexibility as we can, to reflect the realities of commonage farming, while at the same time ensuring we get approval from the Commission and that we do not get a significant fine or disallowance from the Commission due to implementing something inappropriately. We are continuing that process.

Yes, I will meet Deputies from areas that are concerned about this to discuss what we have been doing. I virtually have a daily conversation with Deputy Kyne on this issue and I have also spoken to Deputy Ó Cuív about it on many occasions, both on and off the record.