New single-farm-payment year must be tailored to farmers

ACTIVE farmers must be facilitated in the context of the choice of any new single-farm-payment reference year, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

“We could not possibly agree to any package whereby those who are actively involved in farming, and who are working land in respect of which entitlements should apply, would be prevented from obtaining such entitlements,” he told the Dáil last week.

Coveney said he was concerned that in the build-up to 2014, the leasing and con-acre markets and, potentially, the afforestation market, may be affected by the setting of the reference year in the future rather than the past.