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Common Agricultural Policy Negotiations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 July 2018

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Ceisteanna (2)

Martin Kenny

Ceist:

2. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the types of schemes that will be under Pillar 2 of the next CAP; the environmental measure that will be made mandatory or otherwise under Pillar 1 of the next CAP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31632/18]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (10 píosaí cainte)

I support my colleague's calls for the Minister and everyone in the farming community to ensure the CAP budget is increased. We face a huge problem with this cut.

My question is on Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 and the environmental schemes. Under Pillar 1 and the environmental scheme that is proposed, what percentage of the payment the farmer will receive will be for that Pillar? What types of schemes does the Minister expect to be able to provide under it? How will they differ from what we have traditionally had under Pillar 2? What types of schemes will be there under Pillar 2? Will it be a continuation of GLAS or will it be something different? Will it focus more on biodiversity? Where are we going in regard to all of this? It is important, as we move towards negotiating the new CAP, that we have clarity around those issues for the farming community.

The new legislative proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy 2021-2027 were launched on Friday, 1 June 2018 by Commissioner Hogan. The Commission proposals, as drafted, involve significant changes, including in relation to governance, the distribution of direct payments among farmers and the environmental conditionality attaching to such payments.

They provide for additional discretion for member states in configuring the new measures available, within parameters laid down in the draft proposals. The new Commission proposals commit to a more significant environmental ambition than the current CAP schemes, including in Pillar 1, where an eco measure, which would be mandatory for member states, but voluntary for farmers, is provided for. It is too early to say how such a scheme might be configured.

The proposals also preserve the basic architecture of the current CAP. It is clear that they envisage measures that support farmers in areas of natural constraint, those who adopt environmental or climate friendly actions, collaborative actions such as farm partnerships, young farmers taking over holdings for the first time, on farm investments, risk management tools and knowledge exchange and information.

We are now at the beginning of what will be intensive and challenging negotiations on the final shape of these draft regulations. I intend to work with the Commission and other member states to shape these proposals into an effective new Common Agricultural Policy. My Department is still analysing the proposals and their potential implications for the Irish agrifood sector.

I have always sought to have a broad consultation on these proposals. Earlier in the year, my Department engaged in a national consultation involving six meetings with stakeholders across the country. In addition, on 4 July, I hosted a conference on the new CAP legislative proposals for interested stakeholders, including farm bodies, State agencies and the environmental pillar. The Deputy, along with other members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, were invited to participate in this conference, and I appreciate the fact the Deputy was there for the full day. This was a timely opportunity to bring all interested stakeholders together for a constructive discussion on the future CAP. The range of speakers came from the political sphere, from the European Commission and from my Department. The conference was a very useful opportunity to hear the views of the many stakeholders involved.

Over the coming months there will be detailed negotiations at all levels across the European Union as we work together to shape the final outcome. At the centre of all our considerations will be the need to ensure that CAP post-2020, properly funded, will continue to support farm families and the rural economy. The current draft proposals must be agreed at European Union Council level. Whenever the agreed final EU Council position on the CAP proposals is reached, the proposals will then be discussed at trilogues involving the EU Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Agricultural Ministers.

These processes must all be worked through and concluded before a final text can be agreed. I will be working with my colleagues in Europe to ensure that the final CAP regulations can support farm families in the many challenges they face.

I thank the Minister. I acknowledge much work has been done and consultation has happened with the various groups and farm organisations. I would hope that would be a measure to build consensus rather than taking on board all the information and doing what the Department intends to do anyway, which is what people believe happened in the past.

The Minister stated that there will be more significant eco and environmental measures in the next CAP than there were in previous CAPs. That is something on which farmers would like to get more information. While I appreciate it is probably early days as regards the public consultation around this, I am quite sure, given the close relationship the Minister and his Department would have with Commissioner Hogan, that there is some sense of where we are going with this.

On Pillar 1, what percentage of the payment does the Minister expect will be related to the environmental measures under that pillar? If it is 20%, 25% or 30%, it will be optional for the farmer but mandatory for the Department to put out there. If it is going to mandatory for the Department to put out there, and some farmers opt in and some opt out, does that mean farmers will not get that 20%, 25% or 30% of the Pillar 1 payment if they opt out? Is that the situation? The danger many farmers around the country would see in that is that one would have the more intensive farmers opting out but the farmers who need the money opting in.

It would mean that we would have a situation where the environmental actions would all be happening on the lands of natural constraint or in the areas where a poorer income is in place for farmers. It must be the case that every farmer everywhere plays a role in respect of it.

The Deputy has raised a number of the key issues that need to be teased out. It will be mandatory under the current proposals in the context of Pillar 1 payments that the State will offer an environmental element. It will not be mandatory for farmers but it will be incumbent on the State to offer that option. That clearly implies that for those who avail of the option there will be a higher level of payment and, by implication, a lesser payment for those who do not.

The detail of the schemes themselves and how they might be constituted is something for a later date. That is why listening to all of the stakeholders is important. It is abundantly clear that the focus is on enhanced measures that deliver on the sustainability and climate change agenda, and having the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, as one of the toolboxes available to the State to meet our targets in that regard. That is understandable and in many respects helpful to us, but the devil will be in the detail in terms of how we work out that scheme. What is clearly being said is that there is not money for nothing in the context of the next CAP in Pillar 1. It will be a high level of conditionality with an environmental condition being a significant element of it.

I understand that. What I am trying to do is tease out what level of commitment the farmer will have to make in respect of it. I have often said the farmer is not the only one who produces greenhouse gases, but in effect, land use is one of the few ways we have of segregating those gases so there is an obligation and an opportunity there for the farmer in that respect. These measures are designed to help that agenda. I expect the battles the Minister will have in Europe will be around what money goes to the agricultural sector and why it needs to go there. It is to everyone's benefit that land is used to improve the environment for all.

Could the Minister give me an idea of what percentage of Pillar 1 will be related to environmental obligations? Will Pillar 2 be an extension of the green low-carbon, agri-environment scheme, GLAS, or will it be more onerous than GLAS has been in the past? Will it be open to more farmers? One of the issues currently is that many farmers have been unable to get into GLAS.

Reference was made in the climate change document to biodiversity, bees and the interdependence society has on what nature does to provide for us. How will that issue be incorporated in the CAP?

The regulation currently states that member states shall provide support for voluntary schemes for the climate and environment in Pillar 1. It is not prescriptive beyond that in terms of the detail. The battles on this will be at a macro level in terms of ensuring we have an adequate budget and then we will be in the trenches in terms of working out the detail of the schemes.

Is it likely to be 5% or 25%?

That is not clear at this stage.

That is not clear at all.

There will be an element of choice in respect of Pillar 1 in that while it will be obligatory for the State to offer that option, those who avail of the environmental option conditionality will secure a higher payment. Much of the detail has yet to be worked out. I appreciate that it must be made as user friendly as possible but, as I understand it, there will be a focus on tangible outcomes as well. That is clear also in the context of the broad thrust of the policy. Previously, it was about various initiatives that we have done under GLAS and the beef data and genomics programme, BDGP, but we will need to see tangible outcomes from the schemes we devise in the future.

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