Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 November 2014
84. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 427 of 4 November 2014, if he will provide more detail on this matter including information on when this decision was taken; if it is an Irish or EU Commission requirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43527/14]
View answerFarmers with payment entitlements whose claimed value was greater than €5000 in 2013 were subject to a linear reduction of 10.49% in 2014 in accordance with EU Regulations. Modulation reduction of 10% which applied in 2013 was not applied in 2014.
The practice of applying modulation reductions to the single payment received by farmers was in place from 2005-2013. A new EU financial framework is in place for the period 2014-2020. Under this framework, new national ceilings were set for all member states. As modulation was no longer a feature of the new framework, it was necessary to adjust the value of entitlements to individual farmers to correspond with the national ceiling.
This regulation also provided the option for a member state to decide not to reduce payment entitlements activated in 2013 by farmers who, in 2013, claimed less than an amount to be determined by the Member State concerned, which may not exceed €5000. Ireland decided to implement this provision to a maximum of €5000. Accordingly, in order to comply with Ireland’s national ceiling, it was necessary to apply a linear reduction of 10.49% to all other payment entitlements.
