Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The financial discipline mechanism is part of the annual budgetary procedure of the European Union.

It involves a monetary deduction from some direct payments by Member States to create a Crisis Reserve for the European Union.

The Crisis Reserve is intended to provide additional support for the agricultural sector in the case of major crises affecting agricultural production or distribution. If the Crisis Reserve is not activated in the financial year, or it is not fully utilised, the balance is refunded to farmers in the subsequent financial year.

For 2020, the financial discipline mechanism was a monetary deduction of 2.9% for the 2020 scheme year. The Crisis Reserve was not activated in the 2021 financial year and as a result some €21.7 million was reimbursed to 100,763 farmers in June 2022.

A small number of additional cases may become eligible for a reimbursement as ongoing processing of cases takes place. Any such cases will be paid when the next reimbursement in respect of the 2020 scheme year takes place.

The €21.7 million Financial Discipline payments earlier this month bring the total paid to Irish farmers under the 2020 Basic Payment Scheme to over €1.183 billion.