There will be no transfer from the pot of money used to make direct payments to farmers (Pillar I) to the Rural Development Programme (Pillar II) under the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that a decision had to be reached by 10am on Tuesday of this week by Ministers at the NI Executive. However, a failure to come to an agreement, mainly between the DUP and Sinn Féin, has meant that the default position of a zero transfer has been notified to Defra in London. It is up to Defra to then notify the European Commission of the decisions made in each of NI, Scotland, England and Wales. NI is the only region to notify zero transfer.