The European Commissioner for Agriculture has said that he wants to see money under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) going towards "those who are actively producing".

Commissioner Christophe Hanson was in Ireland this week where he appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on EU Affairs, where he was joined by his colleague Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin.

The commissioners were in Ireland to meet politicians and stakeholders in the EU budget - the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) - for 2028 to 2034, and the future of farm payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) during that period.

During the meeting of the EU affairs committee - which included several TDs and senators from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food, who were invited to speak and ask questions - both commissioners, particularly Commissioner Hansen, were quizzed on a range of issues.

Commenting on generational renewal, Commissioner Hansen noted that the issue "is not just the money".

"The money is limited, but there are many factors, and when you look into countries, for example, where the generational renewal is really working, Austria is the best example, it's [also] based on education, which is a national competence, because young people need the right skills," the commissioner said.

He added: "It is based on access to land, because without land you cannot produce, and that is of course a problem when you look into many member states, the structure of the beneficiaries of CAP."

Commissioner Hansen drew attention to older farmers continuing to farm, in some cases because they cannot afford to stop farming, as a potential barrier to generational renewal.

"Sometimes it's because they want to continue, sometimes it's because they need to continue, because their pension is not sufficiently rewarding, so that again, the pension, is a national competence, that needs to be worked as well to make it sufficiently attractive," he said.

The proposals for the new CAP, which were published last summer, states that farmers who are on a pension may lose access to direct payments.

Commenting on this, the commissioner said: "What we have proposed as well now in this Common Agriculture Policy is that the digressive area-based payments should be linked as well, that when you get your pension then in principle you are not allowed to get this anymore."

The current proposals for the new CAP state that payments currently paid under Pillar I of CAP would be paid under the 'Degressive Area-Based Income Support' (DABIS).

This payment would replace and combine schemes such as the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS); the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS); and the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF).

The commissioner clarified that farmers with pensions would not be excluded from payments currently paid under Pillar II of CAP, such as the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) or the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

He told the Oireachtas committee: "This does not exclude investment support, this does not exclude the agri-environmental measures, so even if you are producing, and when you are 80 years of age, you can still get this."

"But the digressive area-based [payment] should be [directed] at those who are not yet retired, and I think that is still a discussion that we are having, because we have in many member states, including Ireland, a lot of beneficiaries that get money, but they say I'm not a farmer," Commissioner Hansen added.

"The food security that is in the treaties, a decent living for the farmers...and as well affordability of food for our consumers... I think that should be the overall aim for us," the commissioner commented.