Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 May 2021
268. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the next CAP will provide for coupled payments such as sheep or suckler cow schemes to be delivered under pillar 1; if he is actively pursuing options for such payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28942/21]
View answerThe development of the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) involves a number of stages, including SWOT analysis, needs assessment, intervention design, financial allocations, target setting (including monitoring) and governance systems. The draft CSP will also be subject to an ex-ante evaluation, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment including a public consultation on the draft CSP and draft Environmental Report.
I have, with my officials, continued to engage extensively with stakeholders on the future of CAP. Consultations on the development of the CSP will continue via the CAP Consultative Committee, which comprises representatives of the main stakeholders including farm bodies, NGOs (including the Environmental Pillar), industry representatives and academia. It also includes representatives from Government Departments including DPER, DRCD, DECC, DHLGH (NPWS), and Government Agencies, including Bord Bia, Teagasc and the EPA. The Committee has met on 18 occasions with further meetings planned throughout 2021.
Further public consultations on the development of the CSP are being considered. I will also continue to engage with stakeholders as we develop our CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 to meet the deadline of submission to the Commission by 1st January 2023.
Trilogue negotiations on the CAP proposals are ongoing in Brussels. Until these have concluded, we will not have certainty with regard to the options available to Ireland under the CAP proposals. However, it is expected that the new Regulations will allow Member States the option to consider the provision of limited coupled supports if they consider these appropriate.
Ireland decoupled the Single Farm Payment from livestock numbers following the CAP Reform in 2008, in order to permit farmers to respond to market signals, and obviate the obligation to keep potentially loss making animals to secure the Single Farm Payment. The view taken at the time was that coupled payments obliged farmers to keep animals, even when market conditions were poor, that they potentially reduced the quality of livestock and that there was an increased risk of leakage of coupled subsidies to the processing sector.
Coupled payments would not, of course, lead to an increase in payments for farmers as they would be funded from within the Pillar I envelope.
My view is that supports for the livestock sector can be better targeted through specific schemes aimed at improving the economic and environmental sustainability, as well as the animal welfare credentials, of beef and sheep production. Traditional ‘coupled’ payments as set out in the draft Regulations would not allow for the effective targeting of such supports.
Work is currently underway on development of supports for the sector under the next CAP which will be aimed at further supporting the economic, environmental and social sustainability of beef and sheep farms in Ireland.
