State urged to fight for agri-sector
IFA president John Dillon said the Government must resist the Fischler proposals all the way. Ireland has more to lose than any other member state - a cut of 500 million per year in the value of exports.
“Unless these proposals are changed fundamentally, we will end up with a worst case scenario - lower production, lower prices, lower direct payments and lower incomes.
“And up to 40,000 farmers will be forced out of full-time farming,” Mr Dillon told the forty-eighth IFA annual general meeting in Dublin.
Mr Dillon said EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler is pretending to give European farmers the freedom to farm to meet market demand.
At the same time, he is throwing the European market wide open to cheap imports with a 36% reduction in import tariffs.
“Fischler claims prices will rise. The reality is prices to Irish farmers will fall below the cost of production in most cases,” Mr Dillon said.
“Let there be no mistake about it - the winners from the Fischler proposals will not be the developing countries of Africa and the Third World.
“The winners will be the cattle ranches of South America, the thousand cow dairy herds of New Zealand and Australia and the grain prairies of North America.”
Mr Dillon also claimed that a pay deal without farmers could not be presented by the Government as an inclusive social partnership agreement.
Participation in a new national partnership agreement depends on substantial progress in its negotiations with Government. “The choice rests with the Government,” he said. “Our demands are reasonable. We will fully assess the Government’s response, before we make any decision. But I am deadly serious. The onus is now entirely on Government to find a proper balance, between all sectors of society, including the farming community.”
