James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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648. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will take into consideration the views-proposals of a person (details supplied) in County Longford regarding the distribution of Common Agricultural Policy funding 2014-20; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18723/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Following the conclusion of the negotiations on the reform of the Direct Payments regime, my Department undertook an extensive process of consultation with the farming community and their representative organisations. While no submission was received from the person named, his views were similar to those expressed by a number of farming organisations and individuals.

From 2015 the use of historical payments as the basis for establishing new entitlements in 2015 will be replaced by the Internal Convergence model. The purpose of this convergence model is to achieve a phased redistribution of payments between those who currently hold high value entitlements and those who hold low value entitlements. It introduces a fair and equitable re-distribution of funds between farmers while avoiding the negative impact of a sudden and significant change in income support for individual farmers. As Greening will be calculated as a percentage of a farmer’s payment under the Basic Payment Scheme, the Greening payment will in effect follow the same path of convergence as entitlements.

The definition of a ‘young farmer’ as laid down under the EU Direct Payments Regulation is binding in all Member States, and no Member State has any discretion to vary these conditions. The essential purpose of the ‘young farmer’ category is to assist young farmers in the initial stages of establishing a farming enterprise in their own name and to encourage generational renewal in farming. It is for this reason that the criteria for defining a ‘young farmer’ are restricted to those who are establishing or have established such a holding in the previous five years. In addition the restricting of the payment to a maximum of five years will also make it possible to support those young farmers who will enter farming in the years subsequent to 2015.

I also recently published a consultation document on the new Rural Development Programme, which sets out a range of proposed measures including:

- a substantial new agri-environment/climate scheme (GLAS), which will build on the progress made under REPS and AEOS. This will provide for a maximum payment of €5,000 for up to 50,000 farmers, and a further payment (GLAS +) of up to €2,000 for a limited number of farmers who take on particularly challenging actions,

- continued strong support for disadvantaged areas (now Areas of Natural Constraint), to the tune of about €195 million per year,

- incentives for on-farm capital investment,

- knowledge transfer and innovation measures, aimed at underpinning farm viability, sustainability and growth through the adoption of best practice and innovative solutions,

- a new beef data and genomics measure worth up to €52 million per year aimed at improving the genetic quality of the beef herd, and

- other supports aimed at collaborative farming, artisan producers, organic farming etc.

In response to the recent open call for written submissions on the proposed measures, over 120 written submissions were received by the deadline of 19 February. Following examination of these submissions, an ex-ante evaluation incorporating a Strategic Environmental Analysis and an Appropriate Assessment is being carried out on the proposed RDP measures by independent, external evaluators. There will be a further consultation as part of the Strategic Environmental Analysis in the coming weeks. My Department is happy to include Mr. Mc Loughlin’s submission into this process.

In conclusion, I note Mr. McLoughlin’s comments regarding aid to the suckler sector and as can be seen I will be bringing forward a new Beef Data and Genomics Programme in the draft Rural Development Programme which will be available to all suckler farmers who wish to apply.