Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 July 2021
598. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if eco scheme payments in the next CAP will be paid at a flat rate per eligible hectare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37220/21]
View answerEco-Schemes are being proposed for the first time as part of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and will be funded from within Pillar 1 of the CAP budget. Eco-Schemes will be annual schemes that farmers can choose to participate in each year. Each Member State will have to develop an Eco-Scheme and will have to establish a list of Eco-Scheme actions.
At EU level, political agreement on the three CAP Regulations was achieved in late June. However, there is still on-going work to finalise a number of technical details and the final legal texts have not yet been formally ratified by the co-legislators.
The proposed agreement states that support for an Eco-Scheme shall take the form of an annual flat payment for all eligible hectares covered by the commitments undertaken as part of the Scheme. Payments shall be granted as either payments additional to the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), or payments compensating beneficiaries for all or part of the additional costs incurred and income foregone as a result of the commitments made. These payments may also cover transaction costs. Under certain circumstances, payments may also take the form of an annual payment for the livestock units covered by the Eco-Scheme.
As interventions under the Department’s CAP Strategic Plan are further developed, I will continue to examine all options contained in this proposed agreement with the objective of achieving the best possible outcome for Irish farmers.
