Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which he expects to be in a position to ameliorate the concerns of the farming sector arising from discussions on the common agricultural policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14591/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Council of Agriculture Ministers successfully adopted a General Approach on CAP Reform by a strong qualified majority at its meeting in Brussels on 18 and 19 March last.

In my view, what has been adopted by Council on the key outstanding issue from an Irish perspective, relating to the distribution of Direct Payments, represents a very good outcome for Ireland. I am pleased that the Council endorsed the principle of flexibility that I have been seeking and agreed to the inclusion of the Irish model of partial convergence to a flat rate system in the options available for distribution of direct payments within Member States. As I have said many times, my key aim in these negotiations is to ensure a reasonable level of transfers of payments between farmers, compared to the large transfer that would occur under the Commission's flat rate proposal. My proposal reduces this transfer to around €74 million at a minimum with discretion to transfer higher levels if we wished; whereas the Commission proposal would result in the transfer of around €280 million, based on our 2010 payments database. In addition, the Council has agreed that the greening payment may be a percentage of each farmer's individual payment rather than a flat rate payment. I am pleased with the Council’s agreement to my proposals to bring the necessary flexibility to the Commission’s original proposals on greening, so that farmers can practise sustainable agriculture without overly bureaucratic impediments.

The successful completion of the Council’s deliberations in the form of a General Approach means that my target of an inter-institutional political agreement by the end of June remains on schedule. This General Approach will form the basis for the next step in the negotiation process, the so-called "trilogue" stage. As Chair of the Council of Agriculture Ministers, I will represent the Council in discussions with the European Parliament and the Commission to agree the final CAP Reform Package. I am hopeful that all participants across all three institutions will maintain their focus and redouble their efforts so that, together, we can bring the reform negotiations to a conclusion by the end of June.