Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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234. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the conclusions of the final Agriculture and Fisheries Council during the Irish EU Presidency that took place in Luxembourg; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31313/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The last Agriculture Council of the Irish Presidency focused almost entirely on achieving political agreement across the three EU Institutions on the CAP Reform negotiations. I am very pleased to say that on the basis of compromise texts put forward and negotiated by the Irish Presidency team, I succeeded in achieving an adjusted negotiating mandate from my Ministerial colleagues across all the Member States that allowed me to take forward these negotiations to the final phase. The deputy will be aware that, on the basis of this mandate, we achieved political agreement in the CAP Reform negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission in Brussels yesterday.

The deal represents a package of measures that will set the framework for the development of the EU agri-food sector up to 2020. In terms of the detail of the agreement, I believe this is a well balanced package and is a very good outcome for Irish farmers. In relation to our key area of concern, the distribution of direct payments, Member States will have the option to apply the partial convergence model put forward by Ireland. As part of this model, farmers will receive a minimum payment of 60% of the national or regional average payment per hectare by 2019. Member States will also have the option to set a maximum payment level and to limit the redistribution effect on individual farmers to 30% of their overall payment. This agreement will limit the level of distribution that would have occurred under the Commission’s original proposals to about one third. In addition, the greening payment will be paid as a percentage of each farmer’s individual payment.

Now that we know the full outcome of the negotiations, the next step in the process is to determine the best options in terms of implementation from an Irish perspective. I intend to engage in extensive consultation with all stakeholders before I make any decisions as to the shape of future Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 measures.