The ‘greying’ of Irish farming

hectare on a maximum of 50 entitlements for five years after their date of setting up in farming.

It will be up to a member state in future to decide on the size of the top-up and the number of hectares to which it would apply.

Member states will be required to outline their generational renewal strategy in their CAP strategic plans based on a SWOT analysis.

Importantly, they must explain the interplay with national instruments with a view of improving the consistency between EU and national actions in this area.

Providing additional support to young farmers when setting up can make good sense. But just as a young farmer would not expect a bank to lend him or her money without a business plan, the public should also be assured that support of this magnitude will be sensibly used by linking it to a requirement to submit and follow a business plan.

Additional support does not address the key problem in increasing the proportion of younger farmers, which is access to land. Commissioner Hogan in his address suggested the re-introduction of an early retirement scheme to get more younger people involved in farming.

A significant criticism of previous early retirement schemes was that the benefits were essentially short-term. This is supported by the evidence that Ireland has a lower share of young farmers today than the EU average, even though it was one of only a handful of member states that seriously embraced the scheme.

An early retirement scheme would also have to be funded from additional national Exchequer funds as it is not a possible intervention measure permitted under the proposed CAP legislation.

One reason why older farmers remain farming is the easy access to direct payments. If Commissioner Hogan really wants to help new entrants into farming, tapering these payments according to age would be a good place to start.

Alan Matthews is Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College Dublin