IRL claims the CAP needs to be reshaped for resilient rural sector
Irish Rural Link (IRL), the national network campaigning for sustainable rural communities, made the call in a submission to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) on the shape of the CAP after 2013. “In future, the focus of the CAP must be on developing opportunities for off-farm working, for part-time farmers, the children of farmers and for the rural population who are not involved in farming.
“The real weakness of the current CAP is the less than satisfactory resources available to the wider rural community,” IRL said. The submission argues future rural funding programmes must be much more sector neutral and must focus on job creation and the long-term sustainability the rural economy instead of subsidising declining sectors.
