Further GAEC-2 derogation needed – IFA

IFA rural development chair John Curran has called on Minister Martin Heydon to seek a further delay in the implementation of GAEC-2 from the EU Commission.

“We’re less than six weeks out from the closing of BISS for 2025, but we still don’t know where we stand with regard to GAEC-2.

“It’s just not good enough at this stage for farmers to be left in limbo, or be given the opportunity to appeal parcels falling within GAEC-2,” John Curran said.

The IFA has continually raised the disproportionate impact of GAEC-2 on Irish farms since it first appeared in the draft EU CAP proposals. We have been lobbying nationally and in Brussels since and secured a delay in GAEC-2 for 2023 and 2024.

“The EU Commission has threatened Ireland with fines, but at the same time they keep talking about simplification and reducing bureaucracy.

“The minister should pull together a meeting with the Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen and give him a chance to deliver on his simplification promises,” John Curran said.

“There is a lot of fear and real concern out there among farm families operating on peat soils and where the future lies for both current and future generations,” he said.

“The other reality is that the Government is saying they want to work with farmers on implementing the Nature Restoration Law.

“The way GAEC-2 is being implemented is causing confusion and frustration amongst farmers and it is not conducive to building goodwill,” he said.

IFA SAC project team chair Frank Brady said there is no doubt but that GAEC-2 is problematic for Irish farmers given the amount of productive peat soil we have.

“The option of removing it or deferring it at EU level would be the best outcome, but ultimately, preserving agricultural activity is paramount,” Frank Brady said.

“The real fear here is that the GAEC-2 measures proposed for this year are the thin end of the wedge. The only way we can address the protection of peatlands and wetlands is to change GAEC-2 itself, remove/defer it from conditionality and apply an incentivised approach, rather than squabbling over the details of how it will be implemented,” he concluded.