A group of forgotten farmers want to meet with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to hammer out a solution to their exclusion from farm supports.

It comes on the back of a fresh commitment from the minister to accommodate up to 4,000 farmers who missed out on installation aid, young farmer top-ups, and TAMS grants.

Speaking at the Donegal IFA AGM on Tuesday night, Minister McConalogue said the next CAP presented an opportunity to address the exclusion.

Andrew McShea, a forgotten farmer from Donegal, welcomed the commitment, saying all they wanted was a level playing field.

The group plans to meet with the minister to determine what supports the commitment will translate into.

McShea highlighted that flexibility was needed on age limits, as some of the group had passed the age of 40, which is the current cut off for young farmer supports.

ANC payments

Also on the night, the minister heard from farmers angry at their exclusion from ANC payments.

Robin Crockett, a beef farmer, said it was “a total injustice” that his farm was stripped a payment worth €3,200.

No matter where the threshold would fall on this, there would be people one side of the line or the other

“Things have been changed round in BEAM and we’ve seen flexibility in the sheep welfare scheme too, but we don’t seem to be getting any move on this,” Crockett said.

Responding, Minister McConalogue said it was a challenging issue.

“No matter where the threshold would fall on this, there would be people one side of the line or the other. Without the EU conducting another review and the criteria being changed, that’s where it currently sits,” he said.

“There isn’t any easy way of addressing this Robin, and I don’t have any good news.”

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