Danny Healy-Rae warns entitlements may be abolished

Thank you very much. I have just a few things there, Minister. What is happening with entitlements? As I mentioned here, these include the removal of entitlements and the introduction of a per hectare payment system and capping of area-based income support at lower payment levels. What's happening with that, Minister? So currently, Deputy Healy-Rae, there is no provision for entitlements in the proposals as such. And entitlements appear to be abolished as of the current proposal. We're at an early stage. This isn't an issue for a majority of Member States, as much as it would be for us. But there definitely has been the shift into the flat rate per hectare payment, and that's at an advanced stage now. So the Commission's model is framed as redistributive, and without public impact assessments, the real effects on Irish family farms remain unclear. But, you know, Ireland cannot support measures that reduce income stability. That is really, really important for viable family farms without the robust evidence base. So we need that evidence. We need flexibility on degressivity. So, you know, the... Do you have that page? I had a minute ago, actually, on degressivity. I was just going to say that the current proposals, because Senator Lynch actually asked me earlier, and I didn't read onto the record. The Commission's proposals around degressivity propose that the first $20,000 of your single farm payment will be unaffected, the next $30,000 would reduce by 25%, the next $25,000 would reduce by 50%, and then the next $25,000 would reduce by 75%, and anything over 100% be fully redistributive, effective cap at $61,250. Now, we are capped already at 66... Effectively 66. Effectively 66. So those measures, you know, on the higher end, don't have the same impact. But there's an awful lot of proposals here around how the entitlements go. Sorry, Corina, did you want to come in there? No, I think, look, I think the main thing is that, as the Minister has said, we're at the very early stages, but we are one of the few member states that still have the entitlement base system. So we'll work through with the Commission and the expert groups to figure out how they intend this process to work, and then we'll look for an Irish flavour on that, as always. I think it's probably the best way to talk about it. Yeah, and just to say, look, if there is the end of entitlements, then that really needs to be really carefully managed here, because there will be a lot of people that will be impacted, people could get caught with long-term leases, with changes over and everything. So the proposals, as they stand, don't allow for entitlements, and we have to reflect on, and we're at 85% flattened, so this will be a very big change, but it is back to the points that WDR and others raised, about generation renewal, active farmers. We need to reflect on who would benefit, who wouldn't, from that perspective, and if the active farmer is disadvantaged by the current setup. But also, there's a huge amount of challenges around entitlements, a lot of things that can go wrong. An awful lot of the representations I get in my office, from colleagues in the Houses here, reflecting constituents' challenges, an awful lot of them around entitlements. There's a lot of stress and strain around them, so we talk about simplification. But we would need, for the fact, we need a proper analysis, we need absolutely detailed modelling that tells us who's the worst affected, so then we can look at, when coupling was mentioned earlier, you know, do you go back and do you try and directly support the person who's the most impacted? Can I say to Minister, directly around me and Kerry, what about the young fellows in recent times that are after buying entitlements, over the last few years? That's why it's very important, like, your committee is aware of this, and obviously, you know, touched on it in the negotiations, and I think, Paul, it's fair to say, you raised this point about entitlements here at the committee last year. So this is something we have to be mindful of. Like, you know, people need to be very careful in terms of decisions they're making around entitlements right now. Minister, we'll have to work seriously, Alan, to change this, because this will have a massive impact. You could close fellows down, and if they haven't entitlements, they can't pay their leases and different things. So just to say an entitlement thing is important to reassure people. There is absolutely entitlements in place for 2026 and 2027. And what we are talking about here is, what is the environment in the situation, at least from 2028 and possibly later, if we run out of time, and if we don't get the negotiations done in time, the last time there was an extension. So maybe there'll be an interim transition period where current conditions would continue for 2028. I don't know for sure. We're not there yet. It'll be a decision that'll have to be made at some point. So for the next couple of years, but absolutely people need to be very mindful of the fact this has been well flagged, that, you know, entitlements are not guaranteed to be there, and they're a key part of our consideration. Thank you. Can I just ask one other question then in relation to Leather. And we all know that the value of Leather in rural communities, and we even think of the people and the rural social scheme and the great work they do around all our parishes and our localities, what funding can they expect this year other than this new cap, or what is that honest story about? Again, they're funded for 26 and 27 under the current cap. So everything we're talking about for cap is post-2027 into 28. So the 80% ring-fence funding that we've talked about, that we have at present, which we all agree isn't enough, is ring-fence for single-farm payments for, you know, the direct supports the farmers. Leather is not included in that. The ACAS, you know, the likes of our environmental, our European Innovation Partnerships, our EIPs, which have been hugely successful, they're not covered in ring-fence money. So, like, and let's be honest, if we drag Leather in and manage to get it in ring-fence, but didn't get the 80% increase, then the 80% is diluted down further. So we have to try and increase the amount of things, including Leather, that are ring-fence and get more money for them. So this is a very challenging space to be in, and I know it's a cause of concern for the Leather programmes, but I'm working closely with Minister Killeary, and we're doing everything across government. Department of Rural Affairs, obviously, and community are the lead department on the administration of Leather, but I know what the great work Leather does in Killeare, I know what it does in Kerry, and we don't want to lose that. That's the wrong question. I always like to leave the meeting on a positive, but you're definitely... You've got no good words. Deputy Cooney. Thank you, Chair.