The Dealer was somewhat surprised to hear Éamon Ó Cuív giving high praise to Northern Ireland’s former minister for agriculture Michelle O’Neill. The Fianna Fáil TD was commending the now Sinn Féin northern leader on how she handled CAP reform.

Ironically, Ó Cuív made his comments to a packed house of farmers in Maam Cross, Co Galway, who were in attendance seeking a doubling of their ANC payments as part of the INHFA ANC review campaign. Of course, what Ó Cuív failed to mention was the fact that in Northern Ireland there is no money left to fund ANC payments going forward. The budget for the 2017 ANC scheme has fallen from £20m to £8m, with nothing available after that.

The view up North appears to be that with flat area-based payments, ANC payments are no longer necessary on marginal land.