ICMSA: Exclude lease-breaking farmers from Single Farm Payment

LANDOWNERS who break their leases should be excluded from Single Farm Payment (SFP), according to ICMSA president John Comer.

With EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos due in Dublin tomorrow, the ICMSA’s executive last night met with legal counsel to assess the leaseholder’s rights in relation to future EU farm payments. The outcome of that meeting was not known at the time of going to press.

Landowners have been grabbing back leased-out land since last October when the EU issued its new SFP proposals, under which farmers’ payments are to be based upon land ownership rather than upon the old farm output model.