Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask the Minister about a problem with solar panel farms or solar photovoltaic farms. As a country, we want to get people into all forms of electricity or energy generation, whether offshore or onshore, wind or photovoltaic. However, where farmers give over their farms, whether or not they rent them long-term to companies, for solar farms - not turbine farms but solar photovoltaic farms - they lose their basic payments. That is a disincentive to farmers going down that route. I ask that the Minister, before he comes back on Report Stage, consider where we can go forward on this to incentivise farmers from a taxation point of view or to deal with farm payments on a different basis in order that the farmers do not lose them. They will lose their farm payments, which is very significant, and the farm carries those payments on into the future. Now a farm payment is as valuable as a part of the land if the land is sold. This is a big obstacle to farmers going down that route, so I ask the Minister to look at that aspect of it.