EU’s flat rate payments system ‘too simplistic’, warn Irish farm groups

OUTPUT-BASED farm payments are a thing of the past, to be replaced by a controversial “flat rate” per-hectare payment model, EU Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos confirmed at yesterday’s Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) annual general meeting.

While the visiting EU Commissioner said there is still time to debate some issues, farmers would have no choice but to accept the new payment model, plus the allocation of 30% of the total farm payment for ecological, or “greening”, issues.

Mr Ciolos said: “We cannot link any element of farm payments to production. From its talks with the WTO [World Trade Organisation], the European Union has already committed to not link any aspect of farm payment to production.