Decoupling aid sought from Taoiseach
ICMSA President Pat O’Rourke said the Association accepts that decoupling is a done deal, but wants to know how Minister Joe Walsh plans to achieve his stated objective of protecting Ireland’s agricultural production base.
Mr O’Rourke predicted that suckler numbers will fall by 30%, due to decoupling, unless the Government softens the blow for farmers. He expects that the national milk quota will be filled, but at the cost of a huge 30% income drop for dairy farmers.
He said the dairy premium will leave farmers with an effective 13% price cut, but facing the full 25% price cut without compensation on all new quota acquired after 2005 by expanding farmers.
He said dairy farmers also stand to lose €150 each on 500,000 bull calves.
His main demand for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern tomorrow in a National Partnership meeting will be establishment of a Commission on Farm Incomes.
Without such a Commission, the Sustaining Progress agreement is no more than an arrangement to justify benchmarking for the public sector, said Mr O’Rourke.
Yesterday, he met Finance Minister McCreevy and demanded substantial reduction of extra costs imposed on farmers, including reduction in the animal disease levies and fairer treatment regarding personal tax allowances.
He said ICMSA fundamentally disagrees with Minister Walsh’s statement that decoupling will provide a better opportunity for the food sector to source quality raw material.
“Is he alleging that farmers are not producing quality material at present?”, said Mr O'Rourke, demanding he withdraw the statement.
