Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of money that would be re-distributed under the convergence model after the 3% national reserve, the 2% young farmer provision and the crisis fund is allowed for as well as a 7% coupled payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17078/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The database created by my Department, based on payments made to farmers in 2010, was established for the specific purpose of modelling the impacts of alternative approaches to internal convergence, rather than to deal with all of the Commission proposals on direct payments, such as the young farmer’s scheme, the national reserve, etc. Thus, it does not capture the effects of reductions proposed to payments to fund the national reserve, the payment to young farmers, the crisis fund and coupled payments. These proposed reductions are still the subject of negotiations and there is no certainty as to the final outcome.

In the case of the reductions proposed for the national reserve and the young farmers’ scheme, the percentages currently proposed are for maximum deductions of 3% and 2% respectively. However, the final deductions may be less – depending on the funding needs for these schemes.

As regards the crisis fund, there is an additional complication in that there is a disagreement between the Commission, Council and European Parliament as to whether annual payments below €5,000 should be exempt from deductions to finance this. The Commission has proposed a franchise of €5,000. The European Parliament has proposed no franchise and the Council has suggested a limit of €2,000. This will have to be resolved before any meaningful modelling can be carried out on the impact.

Equally, there is disagreement between the three institutions on the level of coupling that should be allowed with the Commission arguing for a 5% limit in the case of Member States such as Ireland who have fully decoupled payments, the Council advocating a maximum level of 7% for these Member States and the European Parliament seeking a maximum of 15%. And of course, coupled payments are proposed as an option for Member States. I do not intend to take a decision whether to proceed with a deduction for coupled payments until the deal is finalised and the full outcome known.

Given the extent of variables that I have outlined above, it would be premature, in my view, to attempt an exercise that would superimpose the impacts of various models of internal convergence on the other factors playing out in these negotiations.