Irish MEPs must “fight on their backs” for Irish farmers, IFA president Joe Healy said when launching the IFA’s policy manifesto for the European and local elections.

When asked if the current group of MEPs, almost all of whom are seeking re-election, had met this standard over the last five years, Healy said: “Some have, but others had been found wanting.”

The IFA will not accept downward convergence of farm payments, but does support upward-only convergence for farmers with lower per-hectare payments.

Funds to allow this could be created by stripping payments from CAP recipients with large off-farm incomes – high-profile examples being Larry Goodman and Coolmore.

Leasing

Healy also suggested that the practice of the leasing of entitlements by farmers who have exited farming “needs to be evaluated”, presumably with a view to freeing up funds to raise lower payments.

Healy cited the example of a 40ha farmer with 30 suckler cows and 150 ewes. This created payments of €400/ha, totalling €16,000, following decoupling.

The IFA will not accept downward convergence of farm payments, but does support upward-only convergence for farmers with lower per-hectare payments

The Ciolos reforms have already cut this to €13,488 during the lifetime of the current CAP, a cut of over 16%.

The IFA economist Edel Kelly confirmed that the 100% convergence proposal passed by the European Parliament’s agriculture committee two weeks ago would leave this farm’s basic payment at €7,400, a cut of more than half.