Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has moved to downplay the importance to Irish farmers of the European Commission's decision to provide flexibility around the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC), specifically GAEC 2.

Minister Heydon told Agriland that the financial implication of the standard, which may impact farmers in some member states, "isn't the case in Ireland".

GAEC 2 is the conditionality standard of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) related to the protection of peatlands and wetlands. It formally entered into force in early May.

Earlier this month, the commission announced a raft of measures to simplify the current 2023-2027 CAP, including an allowance for member states to include disadvantages to farmers arising from the conditionality standard to be incorporated into calculations for payments for eco-schemes and agri-environmental measures.

However, the minister had repeatedly said that the enforcement of GAEC 2 in Ireland will not change how Irish farmers farm day-to-day.

For that reason, he indicated, the flexibility around the conditionality standard would not necessarily be of benefit to Irish farmers.

He told Agriland: "Whether [the GAEC 2 flexibility] will make a material difference to farmers' day-to-day lives, I'm not convinced of that.

"Farmers continue to be able to farm as they have done on a day-to-day basis under GAEC 2, so letters that those farmers received...still stand. Farmers don't have anything to fear from GAEC 2. It does not change their day-to-day activity," Minister Heydon said.

"There won't be a raft of farmers who are impacted or fined as a result of any of the outcomes of GAEC 2," he added.

The minister expressed similar sentiments in response to a parliamentary question from Labour Party TD Robert O'Donoghue, who asked the minister to outline his position on the matter.

The minister told O'Donoghue: "It is important to note two points regarding the possibility of providing specific support measures under the [CAP Strategic Plan] for GAEC 2 requirements. First, Ireland's CAP strategic plan funding is already fully committed under the existing schemes and no new funding is available as part of the simplification proposals.

"Second, the GAEC 2 standard for Ireland, as recently introduced, is based on existing national legislation and usual farming practices," he added.