Common Agricultural Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

The Deputy's points around generational renewal are very valid. We need to make sure that we have fairness and a balanced distribution of supports across the board. We want to learn from the mistakes of the past. The old retirement scheme was a mistake. It banished older experienced farmers from farms completely and replaced them with newer farmers. There needs to be a partnership approach. I know from my family circumstances at home down through the years that , the corporate knowledge the older farmer had was really important as was the value they had to bring to the farming enterprise.
In regard to part-time farming, approximately 43% of farmers in Ireland are classified as part time. Part-time farmers are central to the structure and sustainability of Irish agriculture. No final decisions have been made on the future definition of "farmer" in the next CAP. We need to make sure that our approach involves fairness and balance and that any future model is workable in practice and will not disproportionately impact productive farms or undermine food production capacity and farm viability. At the heart of this, what I will be able to do is fight for maximum flexibility and for the maximum budget as well. If we do not have the latter, it will really curtail what we can do.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14