Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the long-awaited move towards equality of farm payments in a vote earlier this week on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, post-2020 that took place in the European Parliament's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

The system of farm payments has been based on historical entitlements, which has served to preserve inequality. It means that some farmers received multiples more per hectare than others. There are still farmers in Ireland receiving as little as €150 per hectare in basic payment, while others are getting right up to €700 per hectare. This vote means that the disparity will be lessened and calls for full convergence of payments by 2026. There is a long way to go towards full convergence and full equality, but this is a start and will benefit those on the lowest payments. For some people this could be the difference between surviving as farmers or not.

The only way to sustain family farms is for them to have a decent basic payment. Every farmer should be brought up to the national average basic payment which is €250 per hectare. A Sinn Féin MEP, Matt Carthy, has supported an upper limit of €60,000 for basic payments, with farmers having the option of topping up their payments through participation in environmental schemes. This would allow for front-loaded payments that would offer additional support proportionally for smaller and medium sized farms. It is absolutely vital that there is a separate environmental scheme available, such as GLAS, in the next round of the CAP. Any attempts to incorporate GLAS into the basic payment will lead to a severe reduction in income for farmers and must be resisted. In this week's vote, Fine Gael's political group significantly weakened this ambition so that the direct payments will be capped at €100,000, with loopholes that will allow payments even above this limit.