Coveney coy on single payment reference year

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney will keep landowners guessing on which year will be used as the basis for their new single payment eligibility in 2015.

He told the Dáil it is now recognised that 2015 will be the first year of the new regime.

The European Commission has proposed that existing payment entitlements in member states such as Ireland that applied the single payment historic model will expire on Dec 31 of the year before first implementation of the new CAP regime.