“I want to be honest with farmers. There’s no point saying anything else,” says IFA president Tim Cullinan.

He is acknowledging the reality of high convergence in the upcoming CAP reform, which will see payments to higher recipients cut, something the IFA has been utterly opposed to.

But he is drawing a line in the sand.

Our minister has to dig in on this and hold the line

“The IFA is clearly saying that 75% convergence is as far as we can allow our minister to go,” he says.

“He’s under pressure from the European Parliament, which is pushing for 100% convergence already.

“Our minister has to dig in on this and hold the line.”

Thrust of the CAP

“We’re not only dealing with convergence here. We’re also dealing with eco-schemes, a new concept, all being driven by the Green Deal, Farm to Fork and biodiversity,” he continues. “Combined, eco-schemes and convergence are a massive hit on farmers’ incomes.”

Is the eco-scheme not going to be further convergence for higher entitlement holders?

“There’s no way that the IFA is going to agree to a flattening of the eco-scheme payments across the board. If we go down that road, we’ll make a lot more farmers unviable” says Cullinan.

In addition, any unused eco-scheme money cannot go back to Brussels

“What I want from this CAP reform is that we bring up the people that are vulnerable and make more people viable, not the other way around. What we intend is that the farmer with higher ambition, and willing to take on new measures, will get their money back, and hopefully more along with it.

“In addition, any unused eco-scheme money cannot go back to Brussels. It must be returned to the farmer. There is a possibility that we can have a lower eco-scheme because of the agri-environmental schemes in our Pillar II programme,” he adds.

Pillar II and new REPS

“We have to look at national co-financing. We have a budget of €2.4bn secured for Pillar II. The Government may be able to co-fund that up to 57%.

“That would put an extra €1bn into the budget. Out of this reform, we want to get support up to €300/cow and €30/ewe, something we set out to do years ago.”

However, Cullinan is adamant that co-financing must not include the carbon tax fund.

“There is a clear commitment in the programme for government that €1.5bn would be ringfenced for a new environmental scheme, along the lines of the old REPS,” he says.

“That is new money, for a new scheme, and is separate to the national co-financing for CAP.”