CAP reforms ‘cannot be undermined’

Carlow: Any suggestion that concessions in agriculture are the price for progress elsewhere in the WTO negotiations must be strongly rejected, according to the Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, who was speaking at the Agricultural Science Association annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, yesterday.

“We cannot allow the undermining of the CAP reforms that we have undertaken,” she said, noting the recent comments from certain political leaders within the EU to the effect that refunds could be eliminated within a very short number of years.

Ms Coughlan said this is simplistic and insensitive to the realities of many countries such as Ireland and must be challenged.