Deep cuts to ringfenced CAP funds proposed by the European Commission leave Government needing to fill a €5.6bn hole between 2028 and 2034 if funding levels for farm schemes are to stay steady even before accounting for inflation.

Ireland’s total EU funding for the current five-year CAP stands at €7.53bn and scaling up this level of funding (equivalent €1.51bn/year) for the longer seven-year window of the next CAP would require €10.57bn from the EU budget.

However, CAP cuts proposed by the European Commission only ringfence €8.161bn for the CAP within Ireland’s ‘single fund’ envelope which must also finance a range of non-farming programmes.

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The shortfall in EU funds for farm schemes amounts to €2.4bn before accounting for Government’s need to secure national co-funding of €3.22bn for schemes if the current CAP’s co-funding levels are to be matched beyond 2027. The €2.4bn EU-funded shortfall could be partially filled if Government decides to allocated some of its non-CAP ‘single fund’ envelope to farming as a national priority.

“However, this wider funding envelope is subject to competing demands, mandatory spending targets and horizontal conditionality,” Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon warned the Oireachtas agriculture committee on Wednesday.

“In practice, relying on non-ring-fenced funding creates uncertainty and risk for farmers and rural communities.”

Minister Heydon also sounded an alarm on further “significant change” proposed by the Commission, including the “removal of entitlements”, the “capping of area-based income support at lower payment levels” and the wrapping into one of eco-schemes and agri-environment measures.

“These elements raise important questions for Ireland, particularly given our farm structure and the role of productive family farms.”