Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 February 2013
209. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine based on a provision of €1.213 billion per annum for direct payments under pillar 1 of the CAP 2014-2020, the amount that would be paid per hectare on a flat rate basis on all land in a holding in excess of 25 ha if a payment of €350 per ha was paid on the first 25 ha; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9416/13]
View answer210. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine based on a provision of €1.213 billion per annum for direct payment under pillar 1 of the CAP 2014-2020, the amount that would be paid per hectare on a flat rate basis if all the money was expended on a flat rate basis to all farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9417/13]
View answer211. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine based on a provision of €1.213 billion per annum for direct payment under pillar 1 of the CAP 2014-2020, the amount of money that would be available for re-distribution if a ceiling of €50,000 was put on single payments and if all farmers were paid at a flat rate per hectare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9418/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 209 to 211, inclusive, together.
The change in the national ceiling for direct payments from €1,255 million currently to an average of €1,214 million in the new round (2014 to 2020) arises as a result of the European Council agreement of 8 February on the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). This agreed a 3% cut in the CAP budget and a 7% cut in the overall EU budget. The formula agreed by the Heads of State and Government for the distribution of direct payment funds between Member States had originally been proposed by Ireland, and resulted in a relatively favourable outcome for this country. The result is that the level of direct payments made to Irish farmers has been largely protected, with a cut of 3.3% in current terms in order to accommodate new Member States and due to the overall cut in the Budget.
This reduction in the national ceiling will be applied across the board to all Irish farmers, and is a separate issue from the proposed convergence of direct payments within each Member State.
All the data set out below is drawn from the Department’s modelling database, which is based on actual payments to farmers in 2010. Total payments covered by the database amount to €1,250 million. The Deputy should note that this database has recently been updated with more detailed information on payments in 2010, so results may vary slightly from previous answers to Parliamentary Questions. The purpose of the database is specifically to model the impact of alternative approaches to internal convergence, rather than to deal with all of the Commission proposals on direct payments, such as the young farmer’s scheme, the national reserve, etc.
If €350 per hectare were paid on the first 25 hectares of each farm, this would leave a balance of €178 per hectare for the remaining land. Note as stated above that this is based on total payments of €1,250 million.
If farmers were paid a flat rate per hectare, as in the Commission’s original proposals, each farmer would be paid €272 per hectare, based on total payments of €1,250 million.
If farmers were paid a flat rate of €272 per hectare, but the total payment per farmer was then capped at €50,000, this would create a saving of €24 million from around 1,000 farmers. This would allow for a top-up of €5 per hectare to be paid to all other farmers, based again on total payments of €1,250 million.
