Farmers warned to prepare for ‘harsh realities’ of Cap reform

Farmers have been warned to prepare for great change in relation to the “harsh realties” of Common Agricultural Policy reform.

Partly because of problems in translating the amendments into all the EU languages, the agreement deadline was “squeezed” into an intensive 12 weeks, MEP Mairéad McGuinness has told a farming conference in Tralee, where she delivered an up-to-date report on the reforms.

Ms McGuinness, who represents Ireland East, said she was also “extremely worried” about the threat from a bloc of countries to budget discussions which would have a direct effect on the farm reform proposals.

The vote on its amended CAP reform proposals by the European Parliament has been pushed from December to the end of January.

The vote will not now take place until March, and that left “a mere 12 weeks” to reach agreement on the new CAP and under the Irish presidency, Ms McGuinness told the conference Farming in a New Era.

Reform of the CAP will see a move in direct payments from single farm payment towards a flat rate (of around €250-€260) per hectare payments throughout the EU, she warned farmers to plan for change.

Partly because of the complexities involved in seeking to flatten payments by 2019, but also because of the need to have compromise amendments translated into 22 of the 23 official, working languages of the EU, the vote has had to be moved from December into next year.

Irish is the 23rd language of the EU and is not included in the 22. Official Parliament reports or Committee Communications are not translated into Irish, although key legislation is.

Ms McGuinness defended the delay, saying it would be hugely unfair on the Czechs or others not to have the amendments in their own language, she said.

There was huge uncertainty about the detail and from a public policy point of view sudden change was not a good idea, Ms McGuinness said.

It had taken a decade to move to flat rate payments in Germany, and even at that this was only “ameliorated” by supports from within the German state itself for bio schemes for farmers. Ireland did not have the money to do this.

“But people have to understand that change is on the way,” said Ms McGuinness.

Farmers who have very high per hectare payments understood they would lose out.

But even a loss of €5 a hectare would have repercussions for local economies.

Around 812 farmers in Ireland receive €1,000 per hectare, and almost 60,000 farmers here received between €400 and €700 a hectare currently. Some 15,661 farmers receive between €250 to €300 a hectare, currently, while 60,000 or more farmers receive less per hectare.

The reforms may also affect beef and dairy farmers differently and people living in close proximity may experience different changes.

Vast regional differences sees the average payment to Kerry farmers for instance at just under €8,000 a year, while in Kildare and Meath the payments are almost twice this. Ms McGuinness said she was extremely worried about the budget and about the bloc of states, including the UK, who was attempting to reduce it.