EU agri reps told that Irish farmers need to retain full national supports

FARMERS need to retain their full national envelope of supports in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) negotiations, IFA president John Bryan told European Union agriculture representatives in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Speaking at the Driving Growth and Profit in Livestock conference last night, Mr Bryan said: “The overall EU budget prop-osals will emerge next week. There have been attempts to undermine the CAP budget, with various parties putting forward claims for increased spending.

“Ireland has aligned itself with Germany and France in steadfastly opposing these moves. The Agriculture Commissioner Ciolos must resist these attempts and deliver a fully-funded CAP budget post-2013. Direct payments are critically important to on-farm production in this country, and especially for the livestock sector.”

The conference was also addressed by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt from the European Commission’s agriculture department and Michael Dowling, chairman of the Food Harvest 2020 Beef Implementation Group.

All speakers agreed the Government must continue to contribute to farm schemes.

However, Mr Bryan criticised recent cuts to AEOS imposed by Mr Coveney, the decision to suspend the TAMS machinery funding and called on the minister to deliver on previous commitments given on AEOS and re-open TAMS.

Mr Bryan said he was very concerned that proposed ‘greening’ measures in the new CAP could increase the cost burden on farmers.

“The Rural Development Pillar ll measures are of vital importance to Ireland and the minister must ensure the full budget of €350m is retained for Ireland. Farmers are very dependent on the payments such as REPS and AEOS, Disadvantaged Areas and farm investment schemes. The payback to society through the provision of public goods and the enhancement of the environment and the rural economy is enormous.”

IFA national livestock chairman Michael Doran said the targets for beef in the Food Harvest report would only be delivered with growth at farm level.

“Profit levels will have to increase significantly across all beef enterprises to achieve this growth.

“Strong, viable prices on a par with UK levels and in our main EU export markets are essential for farm growth and profitability,” he said.