IFA says don't blame us

THIRTY FIVE farmers likely to lose out when the EU switches to Single Farm Payments in 2005 took their cases to the highest levels in IFA.

They met the association's leaders at Mallow. But farmers are wrong to blame IFA for not protecting their interests, said Donal Kelly, Munster vice-president, last week.

He defended the organisation's input into the EU Single Payment policy, which has become a more and more contentious issue among farmers as details of next year's new farming payments scheme emerge.