Resounding support in west Cork for legal challenge to penalties
ICSA (Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association), with the West Cork Community Alliance, is fundraising towards mounting a High Court challenge to the LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System ), in response to the Department of Agriculture cutting Single Farm Payments in West Cork and other areas of marginalised land.
At a meeting last week in Bantry attended by over 200 ICSA members and concerned farmers, there was overwhelming support to mount and fund the legal challenge against a system that farmers feel has been heavy-handed at the least, and unfair at worst.
In a statement in advance of the meeting at Bantry, the chairman of ICSA in West Cork, Dermot Kelleher, said alleged over-claiming in West Cork relates to a challenging and diverse landscape, and is an unfair attack on farmers in disadvantaged areas.
“While there is a Departmental appeals process, the whole process is unjust, because farmers are essentially being penalised for farming marginal ground. In addition, the prospect of retrospective penalties is outrageous and cannot be contemplated.”
The meeting was called to present a general case for taking the Department of Agriculture to the High Court; to find out if there was support for this in principle; and to ask if those attending were prepared to put forward money in order to meet legal costs, in the eventuality of losing the case.
There were no TDs present, nor representatives of other farming organisations, but the West Cork Community Alliance was there — an organisation that has been working with ICSA on this issue.
The top table was occupied by Con McCarthy, chairman of the West Cork Community Alliance; Bantry-based solicitor Brian Harrington, Dermot Kelleher, ICSA General Secretary Eddie Punch, ICSA Limerick representative Seamus Sherlock, and ICSA beef section vice chairman Tom Egan.
According to Eddie Punch — who outlined the background — this “horrendous situation” was unique in the approach that the Department took in dealing with Single Farm Payment assessments.
In May, 2013, he said, farmers were asked to apply for Single Farm Payments based on maps that everyone know were out of date.
Out of the blue, in the autumn of that year, accurate new maps arrived with satellite imagery, which outlined in red which areas of the land claimed for payment were valid and which weren’t. It was, he says, a system of “guesstimate”, at best.
The bigger picture was that farmers were being penalised for “doing what they’ve always done, and for working marginalised land.”
He said a proposed €180 million fine by the EU has nothing to with farmers, and is due to what the Government had done. The appeals system was not adequate, the very volume of appeals was a clear indication of how unjust the system was.
“If you have a situation where you have 10,000 people seeing fit to lodge an appeal, then you know that something is seriously wrong.
“Twelve months later, over 2,000 applications are still sitting on the shelves of the Department of Agriculture. That speaks volumes for what’s going on and it shows that due process for these applications is not a priority.”
Mr Punch said a cornerstone of their case would be an environmental one, and they had actively engaged with environmental lobby groups. He said the overriding policy of European diversity of landscape was not being adhered to by the State’s actions.
During the question-and-answer session that followed, the mood was quite muted compared to some of the more heated gatherings on this issue in the past.
A spirit of restrained determination was obvious, with a number of audience members offering praise for the approach being taken by ICSA in moving forward and fighting rather than staying stagnant and not wishing to rock the boat, the perceived stance of other, larger farmers’ organisations.
Councillor Michael Collins, the West Cork Municipal District poll-topper in last May’s local elections, said he was disappointed at the lack of support from TDs on the LPIS issue, He thanked those behind the latest LPIS initiative for their huge amount of work.
He contrasted it with France, where the agriculture minister says the government will foot the bill, not farmers, for a €1.1bn EU fine which mainly relates to inaccurate declarations of farming land between 2008 and 2012.
The Bantry meeting concluded with Dermot Kelleher putting the matter to the vote in two stages. On the issue of whether ICSA/West Cork Community Alliance should raise money and go to court, the show of hands appeared to be a unanimous approval.
The second question was: were people willing to donate money to make this case possible? Again, the vote was a resounding endorsement.
More suggestions followed from the floor on how to replicate the resounding support in West Cork throughout the marginal land areas of the west of Ireland — the areas most affected by the LPIS review.
Producing a flyer for distribution at marts, and setting up a dedicated Facebook page, were discussed.
By the end of the meeting, donations were being taken towards the targeted amount of €100,000, and volunteers were forthcoming for the follow-up to the general consensus from the meeting — that 1,000 farmers donating €100 per person is more than achievable.
The West-Cork-born initiative is up and running, and could be in a position to bring a case against the State in the next few months.
