The European Commission has stated that it is considering the stronger use of measures like capping and frontloading to reduce the largest farm payments in the post-2027 CAP in a bid to improve its fairness.

One of the reasons for better targeting supports to those most in need is the “very strong push from civil society” for fairness against the backdrop of the “80-20 discussion”, Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen said back in February.

The 80-20 discussion referenced by Commissioner Hansen relates to the notion that 80% of direct payments under CAP go to the highest earning 20% of recipients.

This distribution pattern has been proven under previous CAPs in different member states and across the EU as a whole, but there are differences between Ireland’s farm structure and that of the EU as a whole.

Slightly over one month out from the unveiling of proposals for the next CAP, the Department of Agriculture’s recently updated database of CAP beneficiaries provides some insight into whether this 80-20 distribution trend played out in payments made under the first scheme year of the 2023-2027 CAP in Ireland.

An Irish Farmers Journal analysis of the database has found that the EU-wide distribution trends are not replicated in Ireland when looking at CAP funding overall, Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) or eco schemes.

Figures show 20% of Ireland’s CAP beneficiaries get almost half of funds

The highest paid 20% of recipients of CAP money across funding headings from BISS, to pillar two schemes and LEADER, came to a combined total of 25,851.

These top fifth of recipients received just over €1bn combined in the database for the 2024 financial year, which equates to 48% of all CAP funds.

It took total payments of just over €24,000 to place a CAP recipient in the top 20% during the 2024 financial year. The payments received by slightly under half of all recipients – 62,417 beneficiaries – must be accounted for to get the proportion of recipients that represented in the top 80% of funding.

On narrowing the analysis down to just BISS, the highest 20% of payment recipients received €365m out of the scheme’s total budget of €682m – which was 54% of the total funds.

It took 54,564 recipients or 46% of all who were paid under the scheme to get to the 80% funding figure.