Vol. 576 No. 2
55 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his plans for implementation of the new decoupling payment system; when farmers will be notified of their entitlements; the way in which the appeals system will operate; and the way in which hardship cases will be dealt with. [29352/03]
As the Deputy is aware, I have already decided that all direct payments for cattle, sheep, dairying and arable crops will be fully decoupled from production as and from 1 January 2005. I made my decision on full decoupling well ahead of the effective date of 1 January 2005 to enable farmers and the markets to adjust and to plan ahead.
While the European Commission's detailed rules on decoupling have not yet been agreed I have arranged that my Department should commence the task of establishing entitlements for every individual farmer in the country. In this context I have set up a steering group to oversee the overall implementation of the mid-term review agreement.
The Department has also set up working groups to examine the various aspects of the agreement and the IT and other resources essential for its implementation. It is my intention that the Department shall establish single payment entitlements for each farmer and notify those entitlements to individual farmers during 2004. It will not be possible to finalise this work until such time as the Commission's detailed rules are fully agreed and it is unlikely that final agreement on the detailed rules will be reached before April 2004.
In so far as hardship case are concerned, the single payment will be based on the average number of animals, or the average number of hectares in the case of arable aid, determined under the livestock premia and arable aid schemes in respect of the three reference years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The Council regulation provides that a farmer whose production was adversely affected during the reference period by a case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances occurring before or during the reference period shall be entitled to request that the reference amount be calculated on the basis of the calendar year or years in the reference period not affected by the case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances. If the whole of the reference period was affected by the case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances, the reference amount shall be calculated on the basis of 1997 to 1999, inclusive.
An advertisement will be published shortly in the national and provincial newspapers inviting farmers who are of the opinion that their farming enterprise during the reference period was adversely affected by force majeure to make application to my Department to have their case considered. Application forms to facilitate the processing of such cases will be available at all local offices of my Department. Where farmers who apply for force majeure are not satisfied with my Department's decision on their application there will be a facility to allow such farmers to have their case determined by an independent appeals mechanism.
I thank the Minister for the information contained in his answer. There are still many questions. There is no issue more important to farmers than those payments. As the Minister stated, they are set for a number of years. The Minister stated that he will place an advertisement in the newpapers asking farmers to submit their queries. When they do not know what entitlements they may have for the different years, I cannot understand how they can submit an appeal. That matter needs to be clarified. It is not good enough to say that they will be told about their entitlements sometime in 2004. Every effort should be made to assist people who are concerned about these sensitive matters upon which their bank repayments and livelihoods will depend. Given the way in which the Department works, it will probably be late next year when we have an answer. Resources should be put in place to provide information for people on their entitlements.
The Deputy should ask a question.
Will the Minister consider putting more resources into getting that reply out to people? It will have a huge effect on them.
I accept the concern expressed by Deputy Hayes on this matter, which is very important. The entitlements that will be set next year will continue for the following decade so they had better be right. We have two choices, wait until the detailed rules are published in April next year and then get to work on it or, alternatively, establish a steering group and an IT group, which is what I am doing now. In addition, we will be placing newspaper advertisements over the next few days asking people to contact the Department if a force majeure arose during the relevant years. That preliminary work is important and it is fairly straightforward. The force majeure definition includes the death of a farmer during the relevant years; long-term professional incapacity of a farmer; a severe natural disaster gravely affecting the holding's agricultural land; the accidental destruction of livestock on the holding; or a disease affecting part of the farm's livestock, such as when we had the foot and mouth outbreak. People who feel they are in such a position can contact the Department.
If, on a preliminary examination, a basis to the claim is found, due cognisance will be given to it. If agreement cannot be reached an appeals body will be established so that people will receive equitable and fair treatment. We have only one year in which to do this because the scheme will come into effect on 1 January 2005 so we had better start working on it straight away.
Does the Minister envisage that all payments that have been made available in the past, particularly milk quotas, may become tradable, so that one could sell them on?
The scheme will not commence until 2005 so we will have to see how matters measure up. We have not yet received the detailed rules so there is some constraint in being absolutely certain about how the matter will pan out. There will be a review after about two years for any teething troubles that may occur. Following widespread consultation in public meetings with farmers, farming organisations, Teagasc and factory examinations, I believe that decoupling, single farm payments and producing for the marketplace will be in the best interests of Irish farming in future.
