Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason farmers who purchased entitlements in 2014 to try and make their farm holdings viable are not able to draw down payments on these entitlements now; the reason there was a change in 2015 relating to criteria for such transfer of entitlements; if he proposes to reverse those changes and enable such persons to draw down full entitlements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38927/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Under the new CAP reform which came into effect on 1 January 2015, the Single Payment Scheme was replaced by the Basic Payment Scheme.  All existing Single Payment entitlements expired on 31 December 2014.

The EU Regulations governing the Scheme provide that an automatic right to receive an allocation of entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme was confined to farmers who were in receipt of a direct payment in 2013. The number of Basic Payment Scheme entitlements allocated to a farmer in 2015 was based on the number of eligible hectares declared by them in 2013 or 2015, whichever was the lesser.

The value of entitlements allocated to a farmer in 2015 was based on a fixed percentage of the value of entitlements held by the farmer in 2014 and any payment received under the 2014 Grassland Sheep Scheme.  In this regard, if an existing farmer purchased entitlements under the 2014 Single Payment Scheme, this value was included in the calculation of their Basic Payment Scheme entitlements.

During 2013 and 2014 it was widely advertised in the Media, CAP booklet, at farmer meetings and published in the Terms and Conditions of the 2014 Scheme that persons who did not hold an allocation right should not purchase entitlements under the 2014 Single Payment Scheme.  While such entitlements would be eligible for payment under the 2014 scheme year, they would not carry forward to the Basic Payment Scheme in 2015.

The EU Regulations governing the allocation of entitlements under the Basic Payment Scheme is determined at EU level and binding on all Member States, therefore I do not have discretion on this matter.