Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to the House and I thank him for his comprehensive overview of what has been achieved with the new Common Agricultural Policy. I acknowledge the work particularly over the past six months the Minister and his officials put into providing a new CAP, both Pillar 1 and Pillar 2, for the period up to 2020.

Before coming to the CAP, I wish to touch on another issue affecting many farmers. Senator O'Donovan has particular concerns in the Cork-Kerry area. I refer to on-farm inspections and the continuance of the clawbacks over four or five years for payments which farmers would have achieved. Even though the land parcels provided by the farmers would have been accepted by the Department in the past, due to the digitisation of these maps farmers are now being penalised not only for this year but for a number of years. It is very unfair and is causing financial hardship. It is becoming very burdensome on many farmers and needs to be addressed.

Obviously the new CAP is being introduced at a time of economic difficulties across the European Union, which is acknowledged in the reduction in payments provided under the overall CAP framework. In Pillar 1 there is a reduction of 3% or 10% if inflation is taken into consideration. I welcome the move to redistribute payments on a fairer basis. Given that 70% of farmers are getting less than €10,000 in their single farm payment, it means that 30% of farmers are getting more than €10,000. My party always believed that there had to be a fairer way to distribute the single farm payment because if it was left on the historical basis of the production activity in 2000, 2001 and 2002, by 2020 some farmers would be receiving a payment based on what they were doing 20 years previously which simply was not fair. I supported the Commission's view which would have provided a more level playing field. However, perhaps the deal on the table, as the Minister has outlined, might be a fairer deal depending on where the cut-off comes to provide the additional €70 million that will bring the people on the lower single farm payment per hectare to 60% of the average. I understand the Minister has defined a cut-off of approximately €600 where-----