Agriculture Minister criticises Green MEP's 'ill-advised' letter on lending to young farmers

The Green Party distanced itself from the comments of MEP Ciarán Cuffe after an outcry from the agriculture sector.

The Minister for Agriculture has hit out at a Green Party MEP over a letter he wrote to banking CEOs querying lending practices to young farmers.

Green Party MEP Ciarán Cuffe wrote to banking bosses last month outlining his concern about large loans being approved for young farmers to increase their herd.

It is understood the letter queried bank lending practices, as well as a reference to their continued investment in a sector that is carbon-intensive.

The letter was issued on European Parliament-headed paper.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said he "totally disagrees" with Mr Cuffe's actions.

"I think it was inappropriate for him to do it," he said. 

"I think he should have been guided by government policy on this, which is set out in the Food Vision 2030 strategy, which sets a really sustainable platform for Irish agriculture to develop over the next decade.

"That's the platform that I as the minister and the government are asking all banks and all financial institutions to back and that all farming stakeholders have signed up to.

Totally inappropriate

"I think his letter was very ill-advised and was totally inappropriate, I think he's recognised that as well."

The Green Party distanced itself from the comments after an outcry from the agriculture sector and government partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It said it is not party policy and it was not aware Mr Cuffe had sent the letter.

Leo Varadkar told a Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting that the letter was "worse" than he thought.

Mr Cuffe has since said he was "wrong" to single out young farmers.

Mr McConalogue said it was unfair to target young farmers specifically.

"We need to be encouraging young farmers to come in," he said. 

"Another issue is the fact that the narrative has been too confrontational between the sustainability agenda and agriculture because both can be complementary.

"Both need to become complementary because by becoming more sustainable by reducing emissions and our footprint is going to make our food more attractive.

"We need to look at it as a complementary approach as opposed to the confrontational."

Mr Cuffe later told RTÉ he should not have focused his attention on young farmers when the entire economy needs to work to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

"In fairness to what my colleagues are doing in government, they are working to incentivise organics, biomethane, and forestry and all of these have a role to play in reducing our emissions," the MEP added.