Galway Bay fm newsroom - Galway farmers are likely to receive an additional 6.5 million euro from CAP convergence in the next programme
Farmers in Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Sligo, Leitrim and Clare would be the other beneficiaries from full convergence of Pillar 1 payments.
Farming Independent calculations confirm a major movement in direct payments for farmers across western regions if full flattening under the next CAP programme goes ahead.
Full convergence under Pillar 1 payments would see every hectare of land in each county as the same regardless of its productivity and regardless of individual farm size.
Several counties in the western region would see an increase in total payments:
Mayo would benefit most from full convergence with the total value of Pillar 1 payments increasing by 15 million euro while Kerry farmers would receive a beneficiary of 14 million euro annually.
An additional 12 million euro would go to farmers in Donegal with 6.5 million euro going to Galway in Pillar 1 payments.
Counties that would be disadvantaged under the full flattening are Cork, Tipperary, Wexford, Kilkenny, Laois and Meath.
While not finalised, these figures suggest who will benefit from full convergence, and are also based on the assumption that CAP budget is retained and that the full convergence will be implemented.
However, there have been proposals in the European Parliament to cut the CAP budget, despite the Parliament calling for the programme to be retained. The European Parliament seek full convergence while many member states including Ireland are opposed to it.
