Average income payment of €240/ha needed in next CAP - IFA

The IFA has called on Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to push for the maximum level of area-based income support payments in the next CAP, as well as for Government to step up to the plate and add as much national funds to CAP schemes as will be allowed by Brussels.

The European Commission’s radical proposals for the 2028-2034 CAP plan to abolish the current two-pillar CAP structure while doing away with farming’s standalone envelope in the EU’s long-term budget.

The two pillars are to be replaced by what the Commission has termed a “degressive area-based income support” payment, that would wrap all equivalent Pillar 1 schemes up into a single scheme, while reducing payments for those drawing down more €20,000 through this payment.

The proposals would allow a member state’s average payment rate under the new scheme to fall between €130/ha and €240/ha, with eco schemes amalgamated into the CAP’s agri-environmental scheme.

The IFA told the Oireachtas agriculture committee that Ireland must achieve an average “at or close to the maximum €240/ha level across all farm sectors” under the proposed “degressive area-based income support” scheme.

It crunched the numbers on 2023 and 2024 farm payments to determine the equivalent average payments for these years under the proposed new payment model.

Pillar 1 payments minus eco scheme funds paid out an average of €200/ha to suckler farmers, €175/ha to beef finishers, €180/ha to dairy farmers, €210/ha to sheep farmers and €226/ha to tillage farmers.

However, the association warned that even the maximum €240/ha average payment rate across what would have traditionally been considered Pillar 1 area-based payments “would not leave sufficient funding to finance all the remaining CAP intervention” due to the overall cuts to the CAP.

The IFA also stated that ministries, councils, and committees that “have little to do with agriculture and no expertise in this domain” will be involved in drawing up the next CAP plan, which will be a chapter in a larger plan rather than a standalone set of schemes.

Concern

The IFA noted “strong concerns” around the approval process of the cross-sector plans as it is proposed that they are to receive sign-off from member states, opening the door to some member states “blocking the approval of another’s plan”.

Teagasc also made a submission to the Oireachtas committee, stating that the reduction in CAP funding at EU-level proposed by Brussels “may lead to more significant (negative) impacts on family farm income than were assessed as arising from the last CAP reform”.

The authority said that its economics wing will undertake a “detailed economic analysis” of the proposals in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture in 2026 and 2027.