If there is no way of supporting farmers with small entitlements in the next CAP, then there is an option for coupling, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association president Colm O’Donnell has said.

Addressing Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed last week at the association’s AGM, O’Donnell said that there must be supports for small farm families in the next CAP.

“If it materialises that we don’t have those supports in place, we cannot wait until 2023. It will be too late. You’ll have to look at what options are in pillar I,” he said.

“There’s a coupled option. If you cannot see a way of putting other supports in place, there is an option for coupling, based on socio-economic and environmental reasons for a sector that is undergoing extreme difficulty.

“We hope not to have to call for it,” he said.

O’Donnell said that the Complementary Redistributive Income Support For Sustainability (CRISS) in the next CAP under pillar I is an option for small and medium-sized farms.

“The EU agriculture committee in parliament has said it should be at least 5% of pillar I funding, that’s €65m-€70m in an Irish context,” he pointed out.

“Those farmers with high-valued entitlements on small hectares should be prioritised. They fell through the net the last time. There’s an absolute requirement to look after those farmers,” he said.

Speaking before it emerged that the European Commission wants a production reduction condition on the €100m Brexit beef fund, O’Donnell slammed Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan’s recent comments about incentivising suckler farmers to get into biomass or forestry. He said the Commissioner’s comments were “unacceptable” to the INHFA membership and described the comments as “offside”.

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