Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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381. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the recent changes at EU level regarding the increase in de minimis aid to primary producers; and if the new threshold of €25,000 can be fully drawn down in year one of a three year period for approved participants in schemes that are applicable. [10249/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Under the recent revised rules on state aid in the agriculture sector (the so-called de minimis aid), aid of up to €20,000 can be paid on a rolling three year basis i.e. the current fiscal year and the two previous fiscal years.  Once a beneficiary has reached this limit they may not receive any further aid in excess of this limit under de minimis rules within the rolling time period. 

In order to avoid any potential distortion of competition, each EU country has a maximum national amount which they cannot exceed. Each national ceiling will be set at 1.25% of the country's annual agricultural output over the same three-year period (up from 1% in the current rules). This is an increase in the national ceiling of 25%.

If a country does not spend more than 50% of it's total national aid envelope on one particular agricultural sector, it may increase even further the de minimis aid per farm to €25,000,  and the national maximum to 1.5% of the annual output. This represents a 66% increase in the ceiling per farmer and a 50% increase in the national ceiling.