Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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110. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Ireland's position on the emerging proposals from the European Commission to allow payments for compliance with good agricultural and environmental condition, GAEC, 2, requirements under the CAP simplification package; if he will advocate for strong support measures for Irish farmers managing peatlands and wetlands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25745/25]

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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Will the Minister outline Ireland's stance on the European Commission's new proposals to allow the payment for farmers who meet GAEC 2 requirements under the CAP simplification package? Will he push for strong support measures for Irish farmers who are managing peatlands and wetlands, given the challenges that they face?

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter, which is topical after last week's announcements. The proposals for CAP simplification were published on 14 May by Commissioner Hansen. I welcome any proposals that will simplify and reduce the administrative burden for farmers and for national administrations. However, as with any new legislation, we will need to carefully examine the details of the proposals and evaluate the potential impact for Ireland. My Department will analyse the proposals, and will engage with stakeholders through the forum of the CAP strategic plan monitoring committee once the possibilities are well understood.

It is worth emphasising that the draft amending regulation will only take legal effect after it goes through the process of co-decision, with input from the European Parliament and the Council. This will take some time. Any changes proposed can only be introduced after that process has concluded.

On my position on these proposals, my Department provided input to the Commission on options for simplification, some of which are reflected in the Commission's package.

On conditionality, through my Department, I 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 Commission proposal so GAEC 2 will remain a conditionality requirement and will have to be applied from this year onwards. GAEC 2 is a mandatory condition of the payment of the basic income support for sustainability for farmers, as I know the Deputy is aware. The intention behind it is to protect wetlands and peatlands. EU regulations require all member states to have a standard in place from the start of this year.

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.

It is important to note two points regarding the possibility of providing specific support measures under the CSP for GAEC 2 requirements. First, Ireland's CAP strategic plan funding is already fully committed under the existing schemes and no new funding is available as part of the simplification proposals. Second, the GAEC 2 standard for Ireland, as recently introduced, is based on existing national legislation and usual farming practices.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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One of the core issues is how land is being mapped. Farmers are reporting that productive land is being wrongly classified as peatland with very little consultation or clarity coming towards them. Once land is labelled under GAEC 2, strict restrictions apply. There can be no drainage, no receding and limited grazing, which can have a major impact on farm income, especially in the midlands and the west. There is also a real worry about the retrospective impact and fears that this could lead to future land designations. There has been a lack of clarity from the Department and farmers feel environmental demands are rising without adequate support or compensation. Representative groups are calling for a pause on the implementation until these issues are resolved. That is a fair and reasonable ask.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I have been on the record a number of times on this but I am happy to reassure farmers again that there is nothing to fear in the baseline rationality around GAEC 2. Farmers can continue to do all of their normal farming activity on a day-to-day basis. That is not going to be undermined by this. It is just a baseline requirement for the basic income support process, or what farmers would know as the single farm payment. I know there are a lot of concerns around this. We had to have a minimum controllable area, which we can justify to the Commission that we are able to monitor activity on. That was the land parcel identification system, LPIS. With that, we set a baseline figure using the Hammond Teagasc map from 2009 as the most accurate way of doing that. This was a baseline figure of at least 50% peat in the LPIS for it to come in under GAEC 2. That brought in some mineral soils - about 100,000 ha - but if we did not have that and if there had been any peat in the LPIS, it would have brought in 880,000 ha of mineral soils. I can expand on that further later.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Bogaimid ar aghaidh go dtí an chéad cheist eile. Questions Nos. 111 and 114 are grouped and in ainmneacha na Teachtaí Kenny agus Aird. We will begin with an Teachta Kenny.