Paul McGrath
Ceist:140 Mr. P. McGrath asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position concerning the decoupling proposals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13590/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 11 May 2004
Ceisteanna (109)
Freagraí scríofa
Agreement on the mid-term review of Agenda 2000 was reached at the Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 26 June 2003. The regulation giving effect to the agreement was made on 29 September 2003. The draft Commission regulations setting out the detailed rules for implementing the direct support schemes have recently been agreed.
Following wide consultations with interested parties, I decided that the best interests of the agricultural industry lay in fully decoupling all direct support schemes from production. This will enable farmers to focus their attention on producing for real markets and meeting the high standards demanded by today's consumers.
The early decision to fully decouple payments from production has enabled my Department to begin the major task of establishing entitlements for all those farmers who received direct payments in the reference years of 2000, 2001 and 2002. Earlier this year my Department invited farmers whose production was adversely affected during the reference years because of force majeure or exceptional circumstances to make applications for special consideration. Approximately 15,000 applications were received and are being processed. It is hoped that notification of provisional entitlements can be issued to farmers later this year. Notification of definitive entitlements will be issued to all farmers early next year.