Creed rules out clawback to solve national reserve

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has ruled out clawback of entitlements from conacre as a way to to help fund the national reserve.

The 2017 National Reserve which opened for applications last week will be worth just over €5 million for young farmers and new entrants to farming, in the form of entitlements at national average value, or a top-up to the national average value on entitlements that are below the national average.

This is financed by a cut to the value of all landowners’ Basic Payment Scheme entitlements.