In accordance with the EU Regulations governing the National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme, a young farmer is defined as a farmer aged no more than 40 years of age in the year when s/he first submits an application under the Basic Payment Scheme and who commenced their farming activity no more than five years prior to submitting that application. Priority under the National Reserve is given to ‘young farmers’ and to ‘new entrants to farming’. The Regulations governing the operation of the National Reserve also include an optional provision whereby Member States may use the National Reserve to allocate new entitlements or give a top-up on the value of existing entitlements for persons who suffer from a ‘Specific Disadvantage’.
Following my Department’s consultation with the EU Commission, I recently announced that the group commonly known as “Old Young Farmers”, who established their holding between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009, and who, due to the timeframe of setting up their holding, did not benefit from either the Installation Aid or the Young Farmer category of the National Reserve, can be considered as a ‘group suffering from specific disadvantage’. The result is that this group are eligible to apply to the National Reserve under Phase 2 which open ed for applications on 1 April .
With regard to the group of farmers to which the Deputy refers who commenced farming prior to 2008, officials from my Department recently met with representatives of this group to discuss their particular circumstances.
In establishing the National Reserve I opted for the maximum available 3% of the Basic Payment Scheme financial ceiling which is estimated at providing approximately €24 million in 2015. There has been significant demand for the two priority categories of young farmer and new entrant under Phase 1 the National Reserve. These two priority categories closed for applications on 31 March and the estimated cost of the applications is currently being assessed by my Department. My Department will then have an indication of the level of resource remaining in the National Reserve to cater for the categories under Phase 2 of the Reserve.
With regard to access to the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) for young farmers who established their holdings prior to 2008, I intend to prioritise their applications under TAMS, with grant-aid payable at 40%, being introduced under the new Rural Development Programme. EU Commission approval is awaited on the proposed schemes under TAMS.
