So far there have been just 110 responses to the CAP consultation from Ireland out of 32,817 received by Wednesday morning this week. This is just 0.3% of all responses so far.

The consultation on the future of the CAP post-2020 is running for a 12-week period and will close on 2 May, just 26 days away. Responses have to be completed online and, while the farm organisations and other interested groups always respond, the European Commission encourages individual responses as well.

While it is not possible to analyse the interest of respondents other than nationality, there is a concern that individual farmer responses could be under-represented. The consultation is open to everyone and there is a belief that other interest groups may be more computer literate than farmers and therefore more likely to respond.

When the consultation closes, Commissioner Phil Hogan will host a stakeholder event and is planning to bring proposals forward before the end of this year.