Macra has demanded that the Government establish a farm retirement scheme in which older farmers would be paid to exit the sector. Retiring farmers should be paid the equivalent of €2,910/cow to exit farming, Macra president John Keane told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Macra has demanded that the Government establish a farm retirement scheme in which older farmers would be paid to exit the sector.
Retiring farmers should be paid the equivalent of €2,910/cow to exit farming, Macra president John Keane told the Irish Farmers Journal.
He said that the funding already earmarked for a dairy cow reduction scheme should instead be redirected to fund Macra’s proposed succession scheme.
There should be no land use restrictions in such a scheme, Macra said, in a letter handed to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Wednesday at the end of its protest march.
Proposals
The retirement scheme is one of a range of Macra proposals aimed at supporting young farmers and young people in rural Ireland. Macra has called on the Government to recognise that generational renewal in the industry is at a “crisis point” and it wants a taskforce set up to increase young farmer numbers.
Macra has also called on the Government to clarify its definition of a family farm, to scrap the imposition of quotas on dairy farmers in TAMS and for targeted support for beef and sheep farmers.
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