EU court rules that farmers getting subsidies should not be named

THE names of farmers who receive €56 billion annually from the EU’s agriculture fund should not be made public, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

Following the judgment, the Department of Agriculture immediately took down the list of those in Ireland who received more than €1.9 billion in subsidies from the EU last year and said they were taking legal advice.

Farmers organisations welcomed the decision and ICMSA secretary general Ciaran Dolan said that the EU “had been trampling on the fundamental rights of farmers to satisfy the unjust and unwarranted curiosity of third parties”.