Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Commencement matter I have tabled consists of a long statement. I welcome the Minister to the Chamber today and particularly thank him for being here, which indicates the seriousness of the matter. This is a very important week in Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, negotiations and a breakthrough is expected. I wish the Minister well in those negotiations. He has the support of all of us in this House to get the best outcome possible for all our farmers.

I met the local IFA group in Tipperary last Friday. There are two IFA groups. The chairperson of the IFA group in north Tipperary is Imelda Walsh and the chairperson of the IFA group in south Tipperary is Erica O’Keeffe. The president of the IFA, Tim Cullinan, comes from Tipperary; he is a good Tipperary man. There is concern within the agricultural community about the negotiations. That happens at every juncture where there are new CAP negotiations. The members of the IFA group asked me to relay a number of points they consider are very important. Certainly farmers in Tipperary believe they are very important. This is not about trying to pitch one farmer against the other but about getting the best outcome possible for all farmers in Ireland.Farming is a major factor in all walks of life in Tipperary and the amount of productive farmers that are a benefit to the community there is hugely significant. They asked me to raise a number of points. I am sure the Minister will be familiar with some of them, but I wish to emphasise the areas they think are important in the negotiations.

The first is to minimise the impact of eco schemes on each farmer's basic payment. The proposals on eco schemes will see 30% of CAP pillar 1 funding ring-fenced for environmental measures. The eco schemes must be paid in addition to basic payments and must not be based on costs incurred on income foregone. If introduced, costs incurred on income foregone will mean further cuts to farm incomes.

The second is that the proposal for agriculture must be robustly defended. I refer to the EU Council's position on 75% internal convergence. The key message I get from farmers in Tipperary is about convergence. I know the European Parliament wants a full flattening of that. At a minimum, we must hold to 75% internal convergence. I welcome the fact that the Minister is seeking more flexibility for the State on the spending of this money. Convergence is a key point of that, so that we support it to a certain level, but we must be in a position where CAP does not make it unviable for more farmers to get into the industry.

The Government must confirm its commitment to maximise national co-financing of CAP pillar 2 schemes. My background is in tillage farming and there needs to be a pillar 2 scheme for tillage farmers. Sometimes it is a forgotten area of agriculture and we need to focus on it.

The Government must also honour its €1.5 billion carbon tax rural environmental protection scheme, REPS, 2 commitment in the programme for Government. Other areas of concern include an appropriate genuine farmer definition and the phasing out of long-term leasing of entitlements, as they are EU requirements in the next CAP negotiations. The IFA proposes a minimum economic output metric to be used in defining a genuine farmer and this metric would be based on sales or output per hectare, with a differentiated rate depending on the areas of natural constraint, ANC, definition. A range of issues are of huge concern to farmers in my area, in particular productive farmers. I will follow up when the Minister has responded. I thank him for being here.