Mechanism of CAP payments to be replaced, Commissioner tells Dáil

THE current mechanism for Common Agricultural Policy payments to farmers is to be replaced with a more market-aware model, but Irish farmers should have no major concerns about cuts, European Commissioner Dacian Ciolos revealed during his visit to Dáil Éireann yesterday.

He said that the EU’s taxpayers are fully supportive of payments to farmers. However, in today's enlarged 27-member European Union, taxpayers will not support any two-tier support mechanism that differentiates between long established member states and new entrants.

The CAP’s present regime of payments based on “historical” production levels from 20 years ago is to be gradually phased out, but it will not be replaced by flat “per acre” payments due to the huge diversity in the EU’s farmlands. Changes are coming, but they will be gradual.