Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 March 2004
66 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will take steps to ensure that young farmers will retain the farm entitlements under the Fischler reforms in circumstances in which the transferee is a participant in the farm retirement scheme. [9474/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is involved in working groups and in continuing discussions with the European Commission on the detailed rules for implementing the mid-term review agreement. I have already raised a number of issues relating to both farmers who have retired under the early retirement schemes and the young farmers who replaced them and the implications for them of decoupling and the single payment scheme.
Under the European Council regulation introducing the single payment scheme, a farmer may have access to the scheme if he or she was an active farmer during one or more of the reference years 2000, 2001 and 2002 and received payments under the livestock premia and/or arable aid schemes. In addition, farmers for whom entitlements will be established must activate those entitlements in 2005 by continuing to farm and submitting an area aid declaration in that year. In general, farmers must also have an eligible hectare of land for each payment entitlement.
Young farmers who leased land from farmers who retired under the early retirement schemes, and were active farmers in the reference period, will have entitlements established for them. It should be noted that entitlements are attached to the farmer who was actively farming during the reference period, and not to the land. I should point out, however, that during the Council negotiations last year I secured agreement that farmers — including offspring of farmers who retired before the reference period — who take over the holding of the retired farmers at some date in the future will be able to apply to the national reserve for payment entitlements under the single payment scheme. This will not affect the entitlements of the young farmers who farmed during the reference period.
