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Simplification
Farmer Paul Monagle summarised the general expectation with the phrase: "Earlier payments, less paperwork." Not only should schemes become less cumbersome after 2020, they should also be presented in a more accessible way, according to farmer Michael Gunn: "The language used for definition of sources of funding should be simple, so that older participants and new entrants can easily understand."
The IFA called for an end to duplicate inspections by various agencies, so that a maximum of 1% of all farmers are inspected each year. The Irish Grain Growers (IGG) group suggested reducing the number of "conflicting" schemes and several submissions, including that of the ICSA which called for an extension of "yellow cards" to let farmers fix first-time breaches of regulations before being penalised.
Payments
The distribution of payments is the most disputed issue in submissions to the Department, starting with the European Commission's latest proposal to reduce all payments over €60,000 and cap them to a maximum of €100,000. Many farmers supported the idea, but they suggested different upper limits, such as €20,000, €36,000, €52,000, €90,000 or "the average industrial wage" (€45,000 last year).
"No stud farms or beef industry companies should receive payments as they unfairly inflate mart prices," said beef finisher Pat Leahy. Many farmers want payments to be reserved for active farmers, as defended by the ICMSA and ICOS, with some submissions saying part-time farmers should receive reduced or no payments. Some want front-loading, with the INHFA advocating additional payments for the first 20ha, while others simply want direct payments to be spread out more evenly.
Environment
There is a general view that CAP should do more for the environment. The IFA says that delivering additional environmental benefits should attract additional funding and calls for "objective criteria" in measuring this. Dairy farmer Donal Sheehan suggests that habitats such as bogs and wetlands be given a monetary value on which to base payments for farmers who preserve them.
"There needs to be an acceptable means of incentivising farmers above and beyond income foregone or costs incurred calculations," said the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Most submissions expect the next CAP to make up for the lack of support for renewable energy production on Irish farms so far.
Many submissions, including from non-farmers, call for increased support for organic farming. These include conservation organisations such as Environmental Pillar, which also suggests payments for farmers to maintain non-productive natural areas in support of biodiversity. A group of 27 submissions used a template from a vegan magazine calling for a tax on farmed animals and increased protein crop production.
Volatility and fairness in the food chain
Several farmers suggest an emergency fund to deal with situations such as the recent fodder crisis, which could be funded by levies. Dairy processors want to keep intervention and private storage aid, and to introduce new tools to deal with fluctuating milk prices such as "subsidised income insurance" and dairy futures contracts.
Meat Industry Ireland requests easier access for the meat industry to the market stabilisation tools used by dairy processors during the 2015-2016 milk price crash. The meat factories add that "the single farm payment is the best anti-volatility and income protection measure," and they join many other submissions in supporting proposed EU legislation against unfair trading practices in the food chain.
Young farmers
A lot of submissions call not only for additional support for young farmers, but also for retirement incentives for older farmers. This features in proposals from most farming organisations. Farmer Eddie Molloy echoed many others when he called for a scheme offering "early retirement at 60 years of age".
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