€8.16bn proposed as Ireland's slice of EU-funded CAP budget

Ireland’s minimum EU funding allocation under the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for all farm and rural schemes will be €8.16bn for the programme’s expected duration of seven years, the European Commission has said.

This equates to Ireland receiving roughly €1.17bn each year in the current CAP in EU funds before national funding tops this up.

The Commission calculated each member state’s allocation under its initial proposals for the next EU budget by allocating each country the same proportional share of the overall CAP budget as they are due to receive in 2027, the final year of the current CAP.

These proportions will change up to 2027 when external convergence – convergence between countries, rather than within them – will end.

The Commission’s plans for the next EU budget unveiled earlier this year ringfences just €293.7bn for farm income supports from 2028 to 2034, a reduction of around 20% on current levels, with these funds presently structured as a standalone funding pot in the EU budget.

Revamp

The €8.16bn would need to cover the planned revamp of all area-based schemes into a single “degressive area-based income support” targeting funds towards those deemed by the Commission to be “most in need” while cutting payments for those currently receiving the most from CAP.

The figure would also need to fund any coupled income supports and targeted support for small farmers without topping these any of these three schemes with national funding.

These three future scheme areas could be bolstered with further EU funding under the Commission’s proposals if Government decides to allocate more of the funds it receives from Brussels towards farmers.

This decision would require agreement at national level to prioritise agriculture and not the other previously separate spending areas rolled into the same funding heading as CAP, such as cohesion, tourism and fisheries.

A minimum of 30% national funding will need to be added to any other scheme deemed as “income support” but not listed above if it is to be allowed by the Commission in the next CAP, while other schemes not deemed to be linked towards income support can receive a top up of at least 15%, 40% or 60% depending on region.

An inflation adjustment tool has also been proposed as an element of the next EU budget, which would see the €8.16bn allocation increase by 2% if the rate of inflation is between 1% and 3% or the actual rate of inflation when it tracks below 1% or above 3%.