Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2021
801. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the proposed cap of €66,000 on the basic income support scheme will impact on eco-scheme payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61882/21]
View answerThe CAP Strategic Plan Regulation contains a number of particular requirements for all EU Member States in relation to the redistribution of direct payments.
In that context, I am proposing to implement capping of direct payments at €66,000 by making full use of the flexibility in the regulation where payments between €60,000 and €100,000 can be reduced by 85% giving an effective cap of €66,000. I fought very hard in Europe to ensure that we had a capping of payments that brought greater fairness to the system. This capping will only apply to the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) under the next CAP. It, therefore. has no impact on Eco-Schemes payments.
Eco-Schemes themselves are being proposed for the first time as part of the next CAP and they must be funded from within Pillar I of the CAP budget. I have decided to allocate 25% of Ireland’s Direct Payments envelope to the Eco-Scheme annually, which equates to approximately €297 million per annum.
