Entitlements could be scrapped under radical proposed changes to the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a senior Department of Agriculture official has admitted.

The Department’s assistant general secretary, Paul Savage, has confirmed that entitlements could possibly be replaced after 2027 by a per-hectare payment under proposals being pushed by the European Commission.

“There doesn’t appear to be any specific provision for entitlements under the current [CAP] proposals,” Savage told a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture.

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While Savage insisted that the discussions around the next CAP were at an early stage, he accepted that the current proposals involved replacing entitlements with a new payment system.

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal: “One aspect of particular interest to Ireland is the removal of the system of payment entitlements used to distribute the BISS payment.”

He said that Ireland is examining all details of the proposal.

Any shift away from entitlements could see the full flattening of payments for 120,000 farmers.

Leased land

Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice warned that the scrapping of entitlements poses real challenges for the thousands of farmers who have land and entitlements leased on a long-term basis.

Fitzmaurice said he was “fearful” of farmers “sleepwalking” into serious trouble by entering into long-term lease agreements which involved entitlements without being aware of the Commission’s CAP proposal. He called on the Department to inform farmers about the proposed changes.

Approximately 550,000 BISS entitlements are leased annually.