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.”