Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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372. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will meet representatives of the Forgotten Farmers Group, who have requested a meeting with him; if he is willing to grant preferential access to entitlements to these farmers, particularly those who did not receive installation aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18669/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The group of young farmers who established their holdings prior to 2008 and who are not eligible under the ‘young farmer’ priority category of phase 1 of the National Reserve or the ‘old young farmer’ specific disadvantage category of phase 2 of the National Reserve are referred to as the Forgotten Farmer Group. In response to a request for a meeting with representatives of the Forgotten Farmers Group, officials from my Department met with a delegation from the group on 1 April 2015. At this meeting the main request of the group was to increase the value of entitlements for farmers who are under 40 years to the National Average value of entitlements in 2015. It was estimated that this group would comprise of no more than 300 farmers. Following the meeting my Department carried out analysis of the group of farmers involved. It has been established that 3,900 farmers fulfil this criteria. An estimation of the cost of increasing the value of existing entitlements to the National Average for these 3,900 farmers stands at €12.288m.

EU Regulations governing the National Reserve stipulate that young farmers and new entrants must be given priority status in allocating funding from the National Reserve. Under these Regulations a ‘young farmer’ is defined as a farmer less than 40 years of age who commenced their farming activity during the previous five years. Given the number of applications under phase 1 of the National Reserve, it is not envisaged that there will be available resources to cater for this large additional group of farmers who did not commence their farming activity during the previous five years.

Many of the farmers in this group will benefit from an increase in the value of their entitlements under the convergence process between 2015 and 2019. Farmers who hold entitlements that have an Initial Unit Value that is below 90% of the Basic Payment Scheme national average will see the value of their entitlements increase gradually over the five years of the scheme. By 2019, all entitlements for all farmers in Ireland will be at least 60% of the National Average value.

With regard to access under Pillar 2 to the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) for young farmers who established their holdings prior to 2008, I intend to prioritise their applications under TAMS, with grant-aid payable at 40%.