Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 April 2004
232 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the impact which the possibility of up to one million acres of extra tillage land becoming available under the new CAP regime will have on the future of farming here; and the way in which this will require a re-evaluation of the strategy outlined in Vision. [11619/04]
View answerThe requirement that, in order to draw down the single payment, farmers would have to have 100% of the average land area that they had during the reference period would have resulted in serious problems for certain categories of Irish farmers. For instance, some 56,000 hectares of land has been planted with forestry during the period 2000-03 and quite an amount of land has been acquired under compulsory purchase order by local authorities. In addition, certain farmers who had land rented in or leased in during the reference period may no longer have access to that land. The 100% requirement would therefore have undoubtedly contributed further to an increase in the cost of rented land from 2005 onwards.
I believe that the detailed rules that I have negotiated are in the best interests of Irish farmers and Irish agriculture. I am satisfied that Irish farmers will continue to farm all utilisable agricultural land as they traditionally have done.
The strategies and recommendations contained in the Agri-Food 2010 report are being examined in the context of developments since that report was completed. A broadly based group under the chairmanship of Mr. Alan Dukes will address the issues and challenges, including the introduction of the single farm payment, facing the Irish agri-food sector up to 2015.
