Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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259. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a young farmer who is studying agriculture at third-level and will have a green certificate in two years’ time will be eligible to apply for entitlements as a young farmer from the national reserve and the young farmer's top-up when qualified in cases in which the land is transferred to them or acquired now and in circumstances in which they only claim ANC payments on the land in the meantime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16201/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The transitional EU Regulations from December 2020 provided for the extension of the Basic Payment Scheme National Reserve and also the Young Farmers Scheme for the years 2021 and 2022. 

Under the current National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme, an applicant must have successfully completed the required agricultural educational qualification at Level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications by the closing date for submission of applications under the schemes. 

Applicants under the National Reserve are also required to submit a Basic Payment Scheme application in the year of application to the National Reserve and an applicant under the Young Farmers Scheme must activate Basic Payment Scheme entitlements in the year of application under the scheme. 

For the young farmer priority category of the National Reserve, and also for the Young Farmers Scheme, the applicant must be setting up as the head of the holding for the first time or have set up such a holding in the five years preceding the first submission of the Basic Payment Scheme application. Payments under the Areas of Natural Constraint made to the applicant within that timeframe will not impact on eligibility for the National Reserve or the Young Farmers Scheme.

The draft EU Regulations for the next reform of the CAP from 2023 includes provision for a National Reserve to support young farmers and new entrants and also a successor scheme to the Young Farmers Scheme. The outline of any schemes supported under the next CAP and details of the Terms and Conditions for eligibility under such schemes will be set out once the relevant EU Regulations are agreed and finalised.