Farm protest at Coveney office
Many farmers who have been penalised say they are living in fear of extra, retrospective penalties, and one of their demands to the Minister is to remove the threat of retrospection.
West Cork Communities Alliance Secretary Margaret Peters said farmers in the area are the worst hit in Ireland by Department of Agriculture decisions deeming their land ineligible for direct payments.
She said one farmer whose annual payments have been cut €7,000 because of land being deemed ineligible lives in fear of a retrospective penalty totalling €42,000.
She said many farmers were badly advised when applying for payments, and that the Irish government has gone overboard on land eligibility.
But farmers’ pleas for help to local TDs, Minister Coveney, and to the junior minister with special responsibility for rural economic development, Ann Phelan, had fallen on deaf ears.
Land eligibility rulings had a sting in the tail for thousands of farmers in September, when they found their disadvantaged area payments were cut also.
At the time, ICSA West Cork chairman Dermot Kelleher said farmers in the disadvantaged areas now feel they are surplus to national requirements, after losing out in the CAP reform, and suffering beef income cuts.
