Michael Ring
Question:186 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the effect the stacking of premium entitlements on owned land will have on land rental prices. [20439/04]
View answerTuesday, 6 July 2004
Questions (154, 155, 156, 157)
Michael Ring
Question:187 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the measures that have been put in place to ensure that there is no abuse of the stacking entitlements in relation to the single payment scheme (details supplied); and if his Department will issue guideline prices for rented land based on previous years prices to avoid abuse of the system. [20440/04]
View answerMichael Ring
Question:188 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if the new 50% rule for stacking entitlements to the single payment scheme will only apply if rented land was no longer available; or if it will apply where land is only rented on an annual basis or when the lease period comes to an end. [20441/04]
View answerMichael Ring
Question:189 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason stack entitlements have been set at 50% of land farmed in the reference years, for the single payment scheme, rather than 80%; and if this rate will result in land that was previously rented being left idle to grow wild. [20442/04]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 186 to 189, inclusive, together.
The requirement that, 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 to 2003 and quite an amount of land has been acquired under compulsory purchase order by local authorities. In addition, certain farmers who had land rented or leased during the reference period may no longer have access to that land. Some 45,000 farmers depend to some extent on leased or rented land involving some 832,00 hectares in 2000 according to Central Statistics Office data. The 100% requirement would therefore have undoubtedly contributed further to an increase in the cost of rented land from 2005 onwards.
The balance has to be in favour of active farmers who want to expand. It was for these reasons that I sought a derogation on the 100% land requirement and the 50% rule in the final text of the European Commission implementing rules addresses these issues. Under the single payment scheme, the farmer must declare all the hectares available to him or her in 2005 including any land leased. To avail of the stacking concession, the total area declared by the farmer must be equal to at least 50% of the average area declared during the reference period. Stacking can only take place where a lease agreement has expired. Consequently a farmer may not break a lease agreement to benefit from the provision. However, it is worth noting that there is no onus on an applicant to continue renting such land. The concessions for consolidating or stacking entitlements cannot be applied to any farmer who declares fewer hectares than entitlements because he or she disposed of land by way of sale or lease other than sale of land to a public authority for non-agricultural use.
The provisions may be applied to the following categories of farmers: farmers who have afforested some of their land since the beginning of the reference period; farmers who have disposed of land to a public authority for non-agricultural use; farmers who had land leased-rented in during the reference period but the lease-rental agreement has since expired; and farmers who declared lands situated in Northern Ireland during the reference period.
Where a farmer benefits from this concession all of his or her consolidated payment entitlements will be regarded as having come from the national reserve. The consolidated entitlements concerned cannot be sold or leased out for five years from the year of allocation and the farmer must use all entitlements himself or herself each year for a period of five years otherwise any entitlements not used, each year will revert to the national reserve. It would not be possible or appropriate for my Department to become involved in issuing guidelines prices for rented land.