Stakeholders in Ireland are "broadly in agreement" that "stability and certainty for farmers should be the priority" for the final two years of the implementation of the current CAP Strategic Plan (CSP).

This is according to Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) officials who went before the recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to give an update on a European Commission simplification proposal.

In July 2024, "significant simplification changes" to the CAP were introduced, Sinéad McPhillips, DAFM assistant secretary general, told the committee.

"This included removing farmers on less than 10ha from controls and penalties for conditionality," she said.

"This had an immediate impact on 20,000 farmers in Ireland with farms of less than 10ha, reducing their administrative burden."

In February this year, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen launched a new ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food’ as one of the first policy proposals of the new commission term.

"He emphasised the need for simplification for both farmers and administrations," McPhillips said.

In May, the commission launched the proposal for an amending regulation, which was the focus of the Oireachtas committee's meeting this week.

The proposal puts forward changes to the two main regulations (2021/2115 and 2021/2116) that govern the implementation of (CSPs for the period 2023-2027.

The proposed amendments can be summarised as changes in the following broad areas, according to DAFM: green architecture, including controls and eligibility; crisis reserve and risk management; competitiveness and digitalisation; and the administration of the CAP.

"In each of these four blocks there are some mandatory changes that, if accepted, will automatically come into force," McPhillips said.

"There are also changes to some CAP measures which are only implemented in certain member states."

Some of the changes are to measures that are not included in Ireland's CSP, such as payment rates under the 'Small Farmer Scheme'.

The focus of the proposals is on "providing additional flexibilities to member states within the existing suite of CSP measures", McPhillips said.

However, there is no additional funding attached to this proposal. Therefore, the implementation of any new options would have to be funded from within the existing CSP envelope. The financial allocation of €9.8 billion under the Irish CSP is already fully committed for the current period of 2023 to 2027, McPhillips said.

The simplification proposal is currently proceeding through the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ involving the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament.

At present, the proposals are being discussed at council working group. When a ‘general approach’ has been agreed at council level, trilogues with the European Parliament will follow.

DAFM's McPhillips said that the final regulation is likely to be adopted towards the end of this year at the earliest.

"Because of this process, any changes introduced will only be applicable for the last years - 2026 and 2027 - of the current CSP," she explained.

"The department has been engaging regularly with stakeholders including the farm representative bodies and environmental NGOs on this simplification proposal and will continue to do so as it progresses through the European system.

"We expect that overall, there will be limited changes for the Irish CSP arising from this commission proposal."

She said that stakeholders are "broadly in agreement that stability and certainty for farmers" should be the priority for the final two years of implementation of the current CSP.

"We have a strong view from stakeholders that we have two years left in the current CSP, what we want to do is make sure that the schemes work effectively, that there are no delays and that farmers understand very well what is being asked of them in the current CSP," McPhillips said.

"Any major change now would be disruptive."

Post-2027 CAP proposals are expected to be unveiled by the European Commission this week.

McPhillips told the committee that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon has advocated for a "stable and robust CAP, with as little change as possible overall".

"We believe that we have a good CSP and we want the possibility of using those measures again," she said.