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Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said he is “slightly more optimistic” about CAP funding following recent pronouncements by the French and German governments.
Speaking at the Navan CAP consultation meeting on Tuesday night, the minister described the CAP as “a living document – every five years we get a chance to change it”.
“Public support for the CAP is linked to confidence that the CAP is fit for purpose to meet the challenges that face it,” he said.
“Economic sustainability – your farm incomes – but also increasingly environmental sustainability.”
This assessment was challenged from the floor by a number of contributors, particularly those from the IFA, who stressed the need to increase the CAP budget.
Birdwatch Ireland and the Irish Wildlife Trust representatives also spoke from the floor. The process was moving westwards on Wednesday evening, with a meeting, the fourth of six, in Carrick-on-Shannon. The final meetings are scheduled for next week in Athlone and Claremorris.
“When you look at the figures, it’s all about money. When you look at the average income that’s coming into farms, when you look at the 75% of farm incomes that on average comes from the BPS.
“The CAP has achieved all its original objectives; food has never been safer or better. It was 40% [of household budgets], now it’s 6%. Who’s funding that? It’s the people in this room. Our share of the consumer food price keeps shrinking.”
– Diarmuid Lally, Meath IFA chair
“[We need] three key changes if we want to be serious about generational renewal. We need to solve the issue of how to define young farmers.
“We had a lot of young farmers who were actively farming who have lost out purely by being proactive.
“For active farming, there should be a minimum of activity and a business plan and a succession plan from the age of 63 onwards. We also need a properly funded National Reserve.”
– Thomas Duffy, vice-chair Macra na Feirme agricultural affairs
“I’m a suckler farmer and I work on the buildings alongside a lot of young men who also farm. I’m here to speak for them. They can’t be here for themselves as they have to be up at four or five o’clock in the morning to be on site by seven.
“They’d love to be farming full-time, but some have no payment at all, and others have only a very small payment – part of the 105,000 farmers with less than €10,000 annual payment.”
– Packie Joe Burns
“I’m coming from the position of one of the farmers who is one of the old young farmers. I came out of college in 2010 and I went home farming with my father. When the National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme came out, I was ineligible because of the five-year criteria. I’m now starting my own family and finding it hard to access a mortgage, and getting no support from any payments.
“I think it’s discrimination against my peers. We came out when installation aid was gone. We’re getting no support for going into farming – we went home and we went farming and we got penalised. Minister, member states should consider getting rid of the five-year criteria.”
– James Fitzgerald, young farmer
“Minister, we all recognise the stress levels caused by penalties and inspection regimes, even your own Department officially accepted that last year when it was raised by North Tipperary. To this end, in relation to an issue arising on a farm, could we not have a closed out period as we have with Bord Bia?
“It would give farmers the opportunity to address the issue and to bring it to a satisfactory closure for both the farmer and the Department. Looking at the system going forward, we need a simplified CAP system that works well for the farmer and the Department.”
– James Fitzgerald, young farmer
“My question is when are we going to get a suckler cow premium? Down where I come from, the surge in dairying is unsustainable; soon they won’t have anywhere to spread the slurry. There needs to be a balance but suckler farmers are disappearing at an alarming rate.”
– Jim Prendergast, suckler farmer
IFA insists that CAP 2020 must deliver for farmers
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