Ongoing CAP reform talks have reignited the debate around what exactly constitutes an active farmer and which active farmers should be eligible for CAP income support payments in the years ahead.

The security of post-2027 CAP payments for 60,000 Irish farmers who hold down an off-farm job will remain in limbo, unless the European Commission’s plans to target funds “only to those persons whose principal activity is agriculture” takes account of active farmers with an off-farm income that is greater than what their earnings are from farming.

A senior European Commission official told the Irish Farmers Journal last week that payment eligibility is a matter that Brussels is taking “very serious” in this round of CAP reform. The official said that “we are not just playing around with ideas” when it considers limiting funds to just farmers making most of their income from agriculture.

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“This comes to the heart of the budget figures and who has access to the money,” the official said.

“There is a fear that there are people who are benefiting from the system and on whom we are spending too much money who are not producing or are too extensive to ensure food security in Europe.”

Flexibility

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon stated to his fellow EU farm ministers on Monday that Ireland agrees that CAP funds should be targeted “towards farmers who are most in need and who contribute to food security”.

However, Minister Heydon pushed back against the prospect of having to target or restrict funds to groups of farmers in a way that would not take account of Ireland’s specific farm systems and income levels.