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The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have pledged to top up any shortfall in the CAP budget with national funding to protect farm incomes.
The European Commission has proposed a 5% CAP budget cut, which would cost Irish farmers €100m annually.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at Cork Marts Fermoy on Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it would be “quite a battle to maintain the budget” but he was up for the battle.
When pressed on Fine Gael policy in the event of a CAP budget shortfall, he said: “The short answer is yes, we are willing to use national funding to top up the CAP budget if needs be to make sure that we protect farm incomes and protect the rural economy – but the first priority has to be to try and make sure we get as big a CAP budget, as big a slice of the European pie for CAP as possible.”
Táinaiste Simon Coveney said the party would prioritise agriculture in every budget. “We will do that, through fighting for the protection of the CAP budget centrally, but also if the CAP budget doesn’t give what we regard as the support it needs, well then we will of course look to top that up,” he said.
Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin has committed to appoint an ombudsman to oversee transparency in the food chain.
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