Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1269. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the European Commission proposal that convergence will continue in the next CAP with all entitlements reaching at least 75% of the national average by 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16920/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The new legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027 involve significant changes, including the end of the Basic Payment Scheme and the start of the new Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS). Trilogue negotiations between the three institutions, which are aimed at reaching a final shared agreement on the shape of the new CAP, commenced at the end of 2020. I am hopeful that these will conclude by June 2021.

Under the proposed BISS, there is a mandatory requirement for Member States to ensure that, by 2026, all payment values reach a minimum convergence level of 75% for all payment entitlements. The European Parliament has proposed a convergence level of 100%. It is proposed that the funding mechanism will be similar to the current system, whereby payment entitlements with values above the average are reduced to fund the convergence.

This proposal builds on the convergence path of the 2015-2020 CAP regulations, under which all entitlements had to reach a minimum value of 60% of the national average by 2019.

My Department is analysing the effects of all of the proposed changes, including changes to convergence, and is engaged on an ongoing basis with European colleagues as well as farm organisations here. This close engagement and detailed analysis of the impact of the proposals on farmers in Ireland will continue until the regulations are fully developed and will, in due course, inform the decision-making process on the implementation of new CAP regulations in Ireland.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1270. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on the European Commission proposal to cap direct payments at €100,000 with a gradual reduction for those over €60,000 in the next CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16921/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The new legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027 include a number of measures which concern redistribution of direct payments, including:

- an overall cap of €100,000;

- degressive reduction of payments above €60,000;

- a complementary redistributive income support scheme, and

- the convergence of payments towards a minimum of 75% of the average payment per hectare nationally.

These measures, and others under the direct payments ceiling, are inextricably linked to each other. This means that each time one of the elements is changed, each of the other elements must also change.

I have always been clear that I support capping. However, there are differing views across the Council, Parliament and Commission as to how the direct payments elements should be implemented in the next CAP. Discussions on the legislative proposals are ongoing between the three institutions, and these elements are still subject to change. The final shape of the CAP regulations will not be known until final agreement has been reached, which is expected in the coming months.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1271. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on implementing internal convergence of payment entitlements during the CAP transitional regulation covering the years 2021 and 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16923/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Convergence is a feature of the current CAP and the new CAP proposals intend to continue with this policy. Ireland has supported this element of these proposals. Convergence aims to redistribute and flatten the value of CAP payment entitlements and like all elements of the CAP, there are differing views regarding its implementation.

Under the current CAP, some €93million was redistributed from farmers with payment entitlements values above the national average to raise the value of payment entitlement held by farmers that were below the national average. This was implemented in a planned, phased manner over the five years of the Basic Payment Scheme and the steps of this convergence were notified to each farmer. This period of planned convergence ended in 2019 following its successful implementation.

The regulation regarding the transition period enables member states to continue convergence during the transition period, if they so wish. In order to provide for stability, some certainty for farmers and consultation on CAP measures, Ireland chose to rest convergence during the years 2020 to 2022.

We are now in the transition period between the old CAP ending and the new CAP commencing in 2023. Following my appointment as Minister, I examined with Department officials the possibility of continuing convergence in 2021. However, given the enormous logistical and operational requirements in the process, the timeframe was not available to consider making changes for 2021.

It is my intention to consult with farm organisations for the second transition year of 2022 as well as for the CAP programme to further consider how to continue the convergence process. This engagement will take place over the coming months in order to make a timely decision for the 2022 period and beyond.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1272. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position he is taking on addressing the fact that current basic payment scheme entitlements are based on reference years that date back to 2000-2002 in trilogue negotiations on the new CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16924/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Basic Payment Scheme came into effect in 2015 and established payment entitlement values under the scheme from that date. While the value of individual payment entitlements can be traced back to an initial reference period of 2000-2002, the effect of this has been significantly moderated through convergence.

During the current CAP programme, farmers who held low value payment entitlements have benefitted from this process. Farmers with payment entitlement values less than 90% of the average have seen their payment entitlement values increase over the period 2015-2019. In 2019, all payment entitlement values reached a minimum of 60% of the national average.

The new legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027 include a continuation of the process of internal convergence, to a minimum of 75% of the national average. The European Parliament argues for a higher level of convergence. Final agreement on the CAP is dependent on the outcome of trilogue negotiations between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which commenced in November 2020 and are likely to run for some months yet.