Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 February 2004
141 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views concerning the supports he will put in place to assist farmers planning for decoupling in 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4931/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraFollowing the publication of European Council regulation at the end of September 2003 and having given careful consideration to the outcome of the public consultative process I initiated earlier, I decided in October 2003 that all direct payments for cattle, sheep and arable crops will be decoupled from production as and from 1 January 2005. I made my decision on full decoupling well ahead of the effective date of 1 January 2005 to enable farmers and the markets to adjust and to plan ahead with confidence.
To ensure farmers were kept informed of developments, my Department published an explanatory guide to the mid-term review of CAP. In addition, a series of information meetings were arranged in conjunction with Teagasc to inform farmers of the outcome of negotiations following the Luxembourg agreement.
While the European Commission detailed rules regulation has not yet been agreed, my Department has commenced the work of establishing entitlements for every individual farmer in the country. It will not be possible to finalise this work until such time as the Commission detailed rules are fully agreed which will be late spring of this year. It is envisaged that provisional entitlements will be notified to each farmer later this year and definitive entitlements will be notified to each farmer with the area aid application in 2005.
The European Council regulation provides that a farmer whose production was adversely affected during the reference period by a case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances occurring before or during the reference period, shall be entitled to request that the reference amount be calculated on the basis of the calendar year or years in the reference period not affected by the case of force majeure or exceptional circumstances. However, the farmer concerned must apply to be considered under force majeure and submit detailed documentary evidence to support his or her case. Application forms to claim force majeure were made available from my Department on 8 December last and I arranged for the closing date for receipt of completed applications to be extended from 23 January 2004 to 6 February 2004. Processing of those applications is now underway and farmers will be notified of the result of their application for force majeure as soon as possible.
Staff in my Department are continuing on a daily basis to answer any queries which farmers may have in regard to the decoupled payment system. Meetings are taking place on an ongoing basis with the farming bodies as issues arise. My Department and the EU Commission are meeting regularly where issues of concern to Ireland are being discussed. It is my intention to publish a new comprehensive guide to the single payment scheme when the Commission detailed rules are finally agreed and a copy of the guide will be issued to each farmer for his or her information.
