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A 200-strong crowd at an IFA meeting in Tralee were told to be careful what they wished for when it came to front-loading payments in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Speaking at the Manor West Hotel on 7 February, IFA president Joe Healy explained that front-loading payments on the first 10ha could target payments towards “hobby farmers”.
There are an awful lot of farmers with 10ha or less who in most cases are little more than hobby farmers
“It would be great if there was enough money there to front-load everything but be careful what we wish for and understand what we’re putting forward,” Healy said.
“The problem with front-loading is that it’s going to eat up an awful lot of the fund of the first 10ha for everyone. And a person with 10ha is not a full-time farmer.
“There are an awful lot of farmers with 10ha or less who in most cases are little more than hobby farmers.
"We're never going to have a CAP that makes a 30ac farm viable" - plain speaking from @joehealyfarmer @IFAmedia at their Kerry meeting.
— Hannah QuinnMulligan (@hqmulligan) February 7, 2019
Front-loading or giving a higher value of farm payments on the first number of hectares of land has been championed by several other farm organisations and Sinn Féin agricultural spokesperson Martin Kenny.
However, Healy pointed out that although the intent of front-loading was to sustain small farmers, it could ultimately have a negative effect on the farm community.
Genuine farmer
Under the next CAP, payments are meant to be targeted at genuine farmers who are actively farming the land and there was much debate from the floor about what defined a genuine farmer.
Healy was clear that the likes of “Larry Goodman and Sheiks” getting over €60,000 payment were not genuine farmers. But he added that the CAP faced a number of difficulties in defining a genuine farmer.
“We can agree with it or disagree with it, but we’re never going to have the CAP that’s going to give the 30ac farmer enough of a supplement to ensure that they’re viable because the view is at 30ac there’s something else required no matter what,” Healy said.
Convergence
IFA Kerry chair Pat O’Driscoll agreed that defining what makes a genuine farmer posed a number of difficulties.
“It’s hard to get that definition, especially around 200 people and if you’re going home in the car with four different people you’ll have four different versions of what is a genuine farmer,” O’Driscoll said.
“But it’s an issue that we have to grapple with and the money needs to be targeted at the active farmers.”
The issue of convergence and creating an average per-hectare payment was also raised, with the IFA insisting that it wanted to see “upward-only convergence”.
The crowd was told that the average per hectare payment would reach €169/ha by the end of 2019.
O’Driscoll warned that cutting farm payments for the sake of convergence could have a devastating effect on some farm families.
The guy has to be thought of who’s on the small farm depending on that payment
“I think an average per-hectare payment is a hard one because some people might have a highly productive farm on a small acreage, built up a fair entitlement and lost a lot of money through that and can’t afford to take a hit,” O’Driscoll said.
“You’ve a person then with a mountain of land with a low payment who's coming up (in money) but at the same time the guy has to be thought of who’s on the small farm depending on that payment. He cannot be sacrificed.”
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