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Given the environmental direction of travel of the next CAP, it is illogical to be removing habitats and penalising farmers who are doing so to remain eligible with their land, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said.
Minister Creed said that land eligibility is something his Department is acutely aware of.
“It’s this conflict between pillar I and pillar II schemes. As you’ll be aware, in the context of the proposals, there is now likely to be an environmental component to the pillar I payment as well.
“I appreciate if you’re farming on designated lands where, on the one hand, there are restrictions in the context of what you can do and, at the same time, because of those restrictions your land is slipping from eligible to ineligible through those constraints, hindering your ability to farm it.
“It’s finding a way that respects the biodiversity, the high nature value of these lands, without having that impact in an adverse way on the farmer through his land slipping from eligible to ineligible,” he said.
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