Thousands to protest at Coveney’s constituency office over CAP talks

Thousands of farmers are expected to line the streets of Carrigaline, Co Cork, this morning as part of an IFA protest outside the constituency office of Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

The minister is expected to respond to IFA criticisms that he has not revealed the full extent of losses which many farmers are likely to face as a result of the ongoing CAP negotiations.

The IFA wants clarity on the 9% single farm payment (SFP) cut cited by the minister, suggesting that thousands of productive farmers could see real losses of 20% to 40% of their annual income.

IFA president John Bryan said: “It is grossly irresponsible of the minister to persist with this deliberate downplaying of the outcome of the CAP reform and the impact it will have on farm families and the growth targets in Food Harvest 2020. Simon Coveney must toughen his position in Brussels and he cannot sell out Irish agriculture in pursuit of securing a CAP deal.”

One likely result of the new CAP will be a redistribution of direct farm payments from larger productive farmers to smaller farmers in less productive areas. In geographical terms, the suggestion is that funds will move from the east to the poorer western counties.

Reports from the Dáil suggest Fine Gael is divided along “east-west lines”. It is understood that the minister held meetings with Fine Gael TDs yesterday to explain the position Ireland is taking in the CAP talks.

The minister was not in a position yesterday to discuss the emerging disquiet over how CAP funds — worth about €8.4bn over the next seven years — will be distributed in the foreseeable future. He is, however, expected to answer media questions over the weekend.

Mr Bryan accused any politicians disputing CAP distribution along geographical lines of playing Russian roulette with the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers.

“Those who are trying to pitch east versus west, or big versus small, either do not understand or are telling blatant lies, which is more to do with their own agenda rather than the wellbeing of farming,” he said. “The SFP is not a fund politicians can promise indiscriminately to garner favour with their constituents.”

He said the debate on the SFP reform must be about the viability of active farmers and support for primary production. He said productive farmers in every parish, and of every size and enterprise, will lose 20% or more of their income if these proposals go through.

“With incomes on most farms already at a low level, this robbing Peter-to-pay- Paul, flat-earth policy, will render thousands of our most productive farmers unviable. As the CAP proposals stand, a large proportion of what is taken from productive farmers will be redistributed to inactive or hobby farmers, most of whom don’t depend on farming for a living. Worse still, the more flattening that occurs, the more damage will be done to our ambitions around Food Harvest 2020,” he said.

The IFA says a funding policy shift towards “hobby farmers” would threaten the viability of Ireland’s agri-food sector, which supports 300,000 jobs and €9bn in exports, with achievable targets to increase both.

However, some smaller Irish farming groups, including the ICSA, have welcomed a measure proposed by France to have a sizeable share of SFP funds frontloaded onto a farm’s first 40 hectares.

A localised solution intended only for implementation in France, the measure has since gained currency in other EU member states. Smaller Irish farming groups believe such a measure could redress a geographical imbalance in Irish SFP payments; they cite an SFP average payment of €223 per hectare in Co Clare versus €350 per hectare in Kilkenny.

ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin said the French frontloading farm payments proposal would favour smaller, active farmers.