Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon has today (Tuesday, November 3) said that member states, including Ireland, need to have "flexibility" to design schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which are specific to each country.

The minister was speaking as a member of the EU Council of Ministers at a high-level policy forum in Co. Kildare as part of Ireland's Presidency of the EU.

At national and regional levels, the event provides a space to discuss how integrated policymaking can help shape better rural policies, looking at Ireland’s ‘Our Rural Future’ and other examples of holistic strategies in member states and regions.

The European Commission’s proposals for the 2028-2034 EU budget, published in July 2025, introduced significant changes to the design of EU funding.

A key development is the proposed consolidation of main EU funding programmes implemented under shared management with member states within a single National and Regional Partnership Plan (NRPP) for each member state, financed through one overarching fund. 

According to the commission, over 35 years of LEADER have shown that bottom-up, place-based approaches create strong added value and lasting impact.

The programme aims to deliver tailored solutions for rural areas, therefore enhancing their resilience.   

Minister Heydon told the forum today: "Partnership for me is a key word. But another key word for me is flexibilty.

"Making sure that we have the flexibility at member state level to be able to design these plans [NRPPs] to best suit our individual needs.

"Our countries and member states are very different and this is something we've had to grapple with on the AgriFish Council [of the EU]," the minister added.

The minister outlined to those in the audience the importance of balance regional development and said that things like congestion into urban hubs such as Dublin city could be greatly alleviated with more blended working or remote working hubs.

He added that in the last 10 to 15 years, the whole of government approach to rural areas has benefitted many communities across the country.

"What we do next on the next round of NRPP funding... I don't get hung up on Pillar I or Pillar II, because no farmer can tell you when they get a payment what pillar it came from," the minister said

"They just want to know that there is support for their activity in producing that food and that the support [as it was] in the past is there.

"Similarly, if we get it right and continue to support the likes of LEADER funding, joined with local government support... I think we can continue to have vibrant local communities right across Europe."

CAP and the future of funding

During an interactive questions and answers session of the forum Minister Heydon outlined that any funding under CAP, essentially forms part of the MFF - the Multi-annual Financial Framework, also referred to as the EU Budget.

"Ideally I'd like the MFF negotiations to conclude in our [Irish] presidency [of the EU]," Minister Heydon said.

"The Irish presidency recently brought forward the 'negotiating box' where we protected the 10% rural target, where we protected the Common Agricultural Policy as it is; there was a very clear view from the AgriFish Council chair that we need an adequately funded CAP and what's proposed there at the minute isn't that."

The agriculture minister said there are flexibilities where he can see a "roadmap" in order to make progress.

"To have been able to reduce the proposed budget for the next seven years in Europe by €141 billion and protecting the 10% rural target, protecting the measures around rural cohesion funding, gives us a platform now to continue those negotiations," the minister said.