Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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47. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if an analysis has been carried out by his Department on the relationship between the value of entitlements and stocking density on livestock farms; if so, the result of this analysis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26488/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department has not carried out an analysis on the relationship between entitlement values and stocking densities on farms.

All direct payments are decoupled from production (with the exception of coupled support for protein crops), which means that other than the initial allocation of payment entitlements in 2005 which was based on the reference years 2001-2003, there is no formal link between entitlement values and production.

Since 2005, farmers may also transfer entitlements to each other. In fact, each year since 2015 has seen an increasing number of transfers and this further erodes any link to the initial allocation value and its production base.

Furthermore, a programme of internal convergence has operated since 2015 and is likely to continue in the next CAP and this has further eroded this historical link.