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The INHFA says capping basic payments to €100,000 would generate the €5m needed to bring all so-called forgotten farmers up to the BPS average of €254/ha.
The association’s national chair Vincent Roddy urged Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to honour this commitment made in the Programme for Government.
The Programme for Government adopted by the ruling coalition of Fine Gael and independent TDs states: “We will seek recognition from the European Commission for ‘forgotten farmers’ as a group with specific disadvantage, under the National Reserve in the same way that ‘old young farmers’ are currently provided for. This category will include farmers under the age of forty, who do not currently meet the five year rule and who did not receive Young Farmers Installation Aid.”
The Government also committed to “propose a lowering of the cap on Basic Payments from €150,000 to €100,000” as part of the EU’s mid-term review of the CAP.
National Reserve still in doubt
However, no funding was available for the National Reserve in 2016 and Minister Creed recently expressed doubt that the automatic claw-backs on unused entitlements would be enough to constitute the Reserve next year.
There is also no sign of mid-term changes to the current CAP regime. Instead, European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has said that he favoured early discussions on a whole new CAP from 2020.
In the meantime, the INHFA wants the Government to replenish the National Reserve from cuts to the top BPS payments. Imposing a €100,000 maximum “would provide enough money for both the forgotten farmers and a young farmer reserve,” Roddy claimed. He added that forgotten farmers had “proven their commitment to farming by entering the industry when there were no additional supports for them” and could no longer be ignored.
Minister Creed said recently that apart from entitlements surrendered or clawed back, European regulations “provide for the application of a linear cut to the value of all farmers’ entitlements to replenish the National Reserve”. A 3% linear cut was applied to all farmers’ BPS in 2015 to fund the National reserve. “Decisions in relation to the National Reserve for 2017 will be considered once the position on potential funding has been established,” the minister said.
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