“I have heard that criticism of the reference years, but looking at agriculture and entitlements today relative to 20 years ago, they bear little or no resemblance. Bearing in mind that, under the CAP, more than €100 million will have moved from farmers with high per hectare entitlements to farmers below the average level of entitlements, it is my view, which is contained within the document as published, that that journey of convergence will continue. It will be external, in that other member states will be looking for a greater share of the cake, and internal, in that, whatever the size of cake we get, there will be greater convergence. I have heard some people mention upward-only convergence, which baffles me to an extent as something of an oxymoron. There will be a continuation of the journey of convergence, however, which represents a greater equalisation and sharing out the spoils of the Common Agricultural Policy between all farmers.”

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2019-02-06/3

Convergence definition: “the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity.”

The reason for the difference in “per hectare” entitlements resulted from entitlements being unlawfully assigned to tenant farmers for land which was not owned by them. This resulted in “naked acres” or farms with a per hectare entitlement value of nil. Naked acres obviously have a lower sale/lease value to the landowner.