Clashes over convergence provided the main talking point at the third European election hustings hosted by the IFA in Mullingar on Wednesday evening. Nine of the 17 candidates for the Midlands-Northwest constituency appeared, with sitting MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan the most notable absentee.
Clashes over convergence provided the main talking point at the third European election hustings hosted by the IFA in Mullingar on Wednesday evening.
Nine of the 17 candidates for the Midlands-Northwest constituency appeared, with sitting MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan the most notable absentee.
Flanagan has been a strong advocate of full flattening of basic payments, a policy more popular west of the Shannon.
Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy also supports equalisation of payments and strongly defended his position on it.
"A lot of family farmers get paid less than their neighbours despite doing the same work," he said, always highlighting that his own preference is "front-loading" where a higher payment is made on the first 30ha.
IFA president Joe Healy took issue with this stance. The IFA says that while recipients with lower payments need a rise, no farmer should see a cut in their payment.
"There are farmers in this room on the breadline," Healy said, and "any cut in payments cuts their income".
Future of CAP
Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, who is the first vice-president of the European Parliament and former Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith are favoured to take two seats in the forthcoming election, and both adopted a more centrist line on the future CAP.
"Those farmers whose payments were cut in the last CAP were quiet then, but they are speaking up this time and say they can't afford any further cuts," said McGuinness.
Smith spoke of the importance of farmers selling the relevance of the CAP to the general public in pursuit of "a fully-funded CAP".
The IFA wants the remaining 27 member states post-Brexit to increase their contribution to the EU central fund, which would maintain the current level of funding at least.
Of the remaining candidates, Anne Rabbitte, Smith's Fianna Fáil running mate and Dominic Hannigan of Labour were low-key, with Rabbitte mistaking IFA rural development Joe Brady for Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed (the two share a remarkable resemblance).
Former Meath-East TD Hannigan now is director of a distillery in Tourmakeady, Co Mayo, producing whiskey, gin and vodka "using 100% native Irish grain".
Independent Dilip Mahapatra was quietly impressive, local Independent James Miller gave a range of eccentric views, stating that "5G is criminally insane and will destroy man, beast and bird".
Fidelma Healy-Eames was strong on farm safety.
Michael O'Dowd, the Renua candidate, stated his belief that grassland contributes more positively to the environment as a carbon sink than is generally accepted. He also called out Fine Gael's Maria Walsh for her controversial comments regarding her marksmanship skills: "As a former two-time mayor of Drogheda it's never acceptable to joke about guns," he said.
Walsh herself was absent, having attended the previous IFA hustings in her end of the constituency in Claremorris.
Voting
The Midlands-Northwest constituency sprawls from just north of Carlow town to the Malin Head, and from Laytown beach in Meath to Belmullet.
Voting takes place on Friday 24 May, with four seats up for grabs.
Read more
Midlands-northwest MEP candidates have their say on farming
‘Even the churches are closing’ – MEP candidates on rural Ireland
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: