The Department of Agriculture has told farming organisations that it does not want to be forced by the European Commission to provide a lump sum scheme only available for small farmers in the next CAP.

The Commission proposed making it compulsory for member states to offer lump sums of up to €3,000 from 2028 onwards to smaller-scale farmers so they would not have to apply for a more cumbersome income support scheme.

“We have expressed our view that this scheme should be optional and not mandatory as per the current draft proposal,” the CAP consultative committee heard from the Department last month. The Department has also queried the Commission on the safeguards that should be put in place if the lump sum proposal makes it into the final draft of the CAP regulations to “prevent [the] splitting of holdings”.

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More broadly on the next CAP, four internal groups have been set up within the Department to co-ordinate “a clear Irish position” before Ireland takes up the EU presidency in July.

These groups cover the policy areas of income support, green architecture, generational renewal and finance, with their output to be “working papers designed to inform Ireland’s approach as negotiations develop”.