Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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210. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in view of the revelation that over 4,000 farmers fall under the category of forgotten farmers, namely young farmers under the age of 40 who established their farm holding prior to 2008 and qualified for no, or low, entitlements, if he will immediately establish a working group of all the stakeholders in order to develop a strategy, not only to look at the entitlements issue but also at other on-farm supports for such a large number of young farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19621/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Officials from my Department met with representatives of the Forgotten Farmers Group on 1 April 2015. This group represents farmers under the age of 40, who established their holdings prior to 2008 and who hold low value entitlements. 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 these 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. Under EU Regulations governing the distribution of funding under the National Reserve, priority must be given to young farmers who commenced farming in the past 5 years and new entrants to farming who commenced in the last 2 years. Given the number of applications received under these two priority categories, it is not envisaged that there will be available resources to cater for this large additional group of farmers who commenced their farming activity prior to 2008.

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%.