IFA and Irish Rural Link clash over the distribution of European funding

THE IFA and the disadvantaged areas community group Irish Rural Link are at loggerheads over how best to distribute European funds to support community development in rural Ireland.

Speaking at the annual Irish Rural Link conference in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath yesterday, the group’s chief executive, Seamus Boland, said that 95% of EU payments to Ireland under CAP go to agriculture, the bulk of this going to “the very rich”.

Mr Boland said: “IRL is calling for revisions of the CAP to ensure that the Leader Axis receives a significantly larger share of funding, and that bureaucracy is reduced for greater ease of access to funding, particularly in light of confusion about funding for food businesses.”