End high business costs, says ICMSA

DAIRY farmers represented by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association will insist that election candidates end over-regulation of farms.

In a policy document distributed to its 20,000 members, the association says Government and civil and public servants allowed themselves to be unduly influenced with regard to policy on the environment and climate change. ICMSA believes this “political fad” led to a person from Birdwatch Ireland replacing their own farming representative on the influential European Economic Committee.

The association also took the opportunity to blame the economy’s near collapse on “the absence of serious and critical analysis”, singling out state agencies such as Teagasc and the universities for insufficient or non-existent research work on the agri-food sector.