Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2021
1272. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position he is taking on addressing the fact that current basic payment scheme entitlements are based on reference years that date back to 2000-2002 in trilogue negotiations on the new CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16924/21]
View answerThe Basic Payment Scheme came into effect in 2015 and established payment entitlement values under the scheme from that date. While the value of individual payment entitlements can be traced back to an initial reference period of 2000-2002, the effect of this has been significantly moderated through convergence.
During the current CAP programme, farmers who held low value payment entitlements have benefitted from this process. Farmers with payment entitlement values less than 90% of the average have seen their payment entitlement values increase over the period 2015-2019. In 2019, all payment entitlement values reached a minimum of 60% of the national average.
The new legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027 include a continuation of the process of internal convergence, to a minimum of 75% of the national average. The European Parliament argues for a higher level of convergence. Final agreement on the CAP is dependent on the outcome of trilogue negotiations between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which commenced in November 2020 and are likely to run for some months yet.
