This is a subscriber-only article
Limiting CAP direct payments over €60,000 would free up €10.5m to redistribute among farmers with lower payments, Irish Farmers Journal analysis shows.
Limits on payments over €60,000, as proposed by the European Commission, would see 1,003 Irish farmers who currently receive more than that take payment cuts.
The Commission has proposed a maximum payment limit of €100,000, along with tiered cuts to payments over €60,000. In 2018, €86.5m (7%) of the €1.2bn direct payments to Irish farmers went to farmers receiving more than €60,000.
The Commission says money saved should be used primarily for redistribution
Under the proposal, this would fall by €10.5m to €76m.
Almost €6m of the €10.5m would come from cuts to 120 farmers who currently receive more than the proposed ceiling of €100,000.
The Commission says money saved should be used primarily for redistribution. If the €10.5m was distributed equally across the 123,000 remaining CAP recipients, it would equate to an increase of €85/farmer.
However, the pot of money available for redistribution may be lower depending on how staff salaries are treated.
The Commission says that member states should subtract the cost of staff salaries from a farm’s direct payment before applying limits.
But the Irish Department of Agriculture has indicated it does not want a salary exemption, citing “administrative complexities” in factoring in P45s and P60s into payment calculations.
SHARING OPTIONS: