There are mixed views on plans within the European Commission to scrap entitlements and move future EU farm payments to a per hectare basis.

Such a move by Brussels is likely to result in a full flattening of payments.

This has stoked up tensions within the farming community, pitting extensive operators against their more intensive counterparts.

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The Irish Farmers Journal got the views of some farmers on the proposal:

Noel Joyce, Sraith Salach, Connemara, Co Galway

“I am not sure how the new system will compensate me. If my current system is maintained then I am happy enough. I want to see fairness for all,” Noel Joyce said.

“Flattening will be good news generally for the hills and the west,” he said.

“We don’t need excess payments, but I think we need a maximum and a minimum payment, and those figures will depend on what is deemed a fair payment per hectare for a farmer going to the hills.

“Farming in the hills is tough going and if we don’t get a fair grant, we won’t have any farmers in the hills.

“What we’ll have is people walking away from hill farms,” he claimed.

“There has to be a carrot to prevent land abandonment.”

Mark Connors, Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford

“The current system of broadcasting CAP funds across the entire country in the lazy, flat rate system that has developed in the last decade or more has not served farming well,” Connors maintained.

“It needs to be focused on what farmers are actually doing on the ground and not rewarding land ownership. The current system is broken beyond repair.

“I have lost 25% of my farm payments over the last decade, and that’s before you take inflation into account. I accept the reality that change is inevitable and necessary for the sector to evolve, but I don’t think the changes on entitlements have been positive.

“I firmly believe direct payments should only go to the active farmer – the man or woman with dirt under their finger nails who needs the payment.

“It definitely should not be going to the sons or daughters of farmers, who inherited the farm and the entitlements and are leasing both out and getting the money tax free.”

Willie Hanrahan, dairy farmer, Doonbeg, Clare

West Clare dairy farmer Willie Hanrahan believes that direct payments in the future should be linked to “specific actions on the farm, including production”.

Like Mark Connors, he maintained that direct payments should go to those actually farming – the leasing of payments should be examined – and access to payments should be prioritised towards young farmers. If we are serious about getting young people into farming, then a fairer system of payments will have to be put in place,” Hanrahan said.

Fed-up farmer in Kilkenny

“As a young farmer with a young family who has been trying to expand and leasing ground to do so I would wholeheartedly welcome this [move to a per hectare payment],” he said.

“Any parcel [of land] that comes up for lease in this area where the lessor has entitlements is set on the pretence that the leasee draws the entitlements and hands back their value on top of the rent. A system refined by landowners and auctioneers in the midlands,” he claimed.

“The active farmer can’t even then buy or lease their own entitlements to go on this land so they could get some of the benefit from the CAP as intended,” he maintained.

Jonathan Murphy, Mayo

“I think the value of the entitlement should be changed to how productive your farm is.

“The people who keep a few ewes to get a payment should be [wound] down and the half intensive beef tillage and especially horticulture should see an increase to their entitlement payment and if it is to go then a replacement payment to match how proactive and productive your farm,” he claimed.

“The EU must pay for productivity to keep EU farming sustainable and to keep non EU food out of Europe,” he added.