ICMSA considers legal action over closure of farm investment scheme

LEGAL action on the closure of the farm investment scheme is being considered by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).

The group announced yesterday that it had obtained legal advice that the Government’s action breached the principle of legitimate expectation.

Jackie Cahill, president, said the scheme had been effectively guillotined and at least 3,000 farmers had been left stranded.

He said the legal opinion the ICMSA had obtained from Gerard Hogan SC, is that these farmers have a legitimate expectation to have their applications fully processed as they had made valid applications before the public announcement to close the scheme.

“I will now be seeking direct discussions with the minister for agriculture on how he intends to process the 3,000 applications, which have been held up for over a year,” said Mr Cahill. “It follows that if he does not act in a reasonably short period of time, ICMSA will be forced to seek compliance by way of judicial review,” he said.

Mr Cahill, speaking atan ICMSA National Council meeting in Dublin, which Oireachtas members also addressed, said farmers are more than willing to play a role in refocusing the economy and realised fully that this meant some painful choices lay ahead.

But farmers bitterly resented a situation where the Government had, yet again, run scared of the powerful public service unions and decided instead to take a blunt axe to the schemes that allow farmers to plan ahead with some degree of certainty and stability, he said.

Most of the resentment felt by farmers was fixed on the closure of the Installation Aid scheme and the Early Retirement Scheme. The Government had erred here in a spectacular way, he added.

“To cut the schemes that permit these managed hand-overs is ridiculous and to do it overnight is morally wrong and will cause severe hardship to individual farmers,” he said.