Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 May 2021
984. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will address the concerns raised by an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24304/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, there are ongoing trilogues between the three institutions of the EU (the Council of Ministers, the European Commission and European Parliament) on the draft CAP regulations. With regard to the draft CAP Strategic Plan Regulation, Article 12 lays out the "obligations of Member States relating to Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) of Land". It clearly sets out that Member States shall set at national or regional level minimum standards for farmers for each GAEC standard. Annex 3 of the same draft Regulation sets out the requirements at GAEC and Statutory Managment Requirement (SMR) level. The Regulation is still the subject of discussion at trilogue level and has yet to be agreed.
GAEC 2 is a new GAEC concerning the protection of wetland and peatland. The draft text of Article 4 (1) (c) (ii) includes the provision that, should the implementation of a standard under GAEC 2 listed within Annex 3 result in any area of a holding that gave right to payments under sub section 2 of Chapter II of Title III of the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation or under the basic payment scheme or single area payment scheme laid down in Title III of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 no longer be considered an "eligible hectare", it will still be considered an eligible hectare for payment purposes. Therefore, peatland and wetland would not be excluded from CAP payments. It is important however to reiterate that these Regulations are still in draft format.
