Sean Conlan Welcomes The New CAP Deal

Deputy Sean Conlan has said that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD has delivered a strong deal for Irish farmers through his negotiations on the new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

Deputy Conlan said that the package was “a much better package of measures that those originally put forward by the European Commission. The deal has secured a package worth €12 billion to be implemented over the next seven years.”

Deputy Conlan stated that the deal was “much fairer than the proposed system of flat rate payments and will result in a €103 million redistribution. It is a testament to Ireland’s negotiating strength that our model of partial convergence has been accepted by the European Commission and may be adopted by other countries should they see its benefits. The model will protect the majority of farmers and the new package also makes a welcome provision for young farmers who will receive a mandatory 25% top up if they are under 40. Positive progress has also been made on the greening of CAP in that 30% of the Single Farm Payment will be linked to greening measures.”

The original proposal put forward by the Commission was for a flat rate payment per hectare by 2019 (flat rate payment). This would have had a major impact on payments in Ireland with very large transfers between farmers. It would have had a devastating effect on productive farmers. It would have resulted in 55,916 losing an average of 33%. In overall terms, it would have meant a total redistribution of €280 million between farmers in Ireland.

The final agreement has resulted in Ireland’s approximation model with a 60% minimum payment being adopted as an option for countries. For Ireland, this will result in €103m redistribution, with average losses of 12% and average gains of 35%. This represents transfers of 8%as a percentage of overall payments.

The agreed model of redistribution allows countries to adopt one of two options – flat rate or partial convergence (Irish model) by 2019. Under partial convergence:

· Farmers with payments below 90% of the national average payment per hectare have their payments raised by one-third of the difference between their current payment and 90% of the national average. This is financed by proportional reductions to payments above the national average payment per hectare

· Minimum payment of 60% of national/regional average payment per hectare

· 30% variable greening (30% of a farmer’s individual payment, rather than a flat rate

Member States have the option of introducing a maximum payment per hectare and an optional maximum 30% loss on convergence.As an add-on to either the flat-rate or partial convergence models, countries have the option of a redistributive payment (first hectares), on up to 30 hectares or the national average farm size, if higher.