Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

554. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the procedures involved in long term leasing of a farm and the transfer of entitlements to a family member of new entrants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2925/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Single Payment entitlements may be leased from one farmer to another if accompanied by an equivalent number of hectares of eligible land.

The application form to be completed by farmers engaging in a lease of entitlements is available on my Department’s website. The closing date for receipt of applications under the 2013 Single Payment Scheme is the 15th of May 2013. Under the current Single Payment Regulations entitlements that are leased out with land will revert to the owner on expiry of the lease of the land.

Negotiations on the CAP post 2013 are continuing and it is too early to predict the finer details of the arrangements that will apply under the new regime. Under the current Commission proposals it is envisaged that new entitlements will be established for farmers who apply in the first year of the scheme and who were paid on one or more entitlements in 2011. There is also a provision, under the Commission proposals, whereby a farmer who was paid in 2011 and who transfers his entitlements to another farmer may also transfer the right to establish entitlements in the first year of the new regime to that other farmer.