RTÉ misled on farm payments

A recent Sunday saw RTÉ Six One News announce the Single Farm Payment for 2013.

We saw images of bales of €50 notes and watched a film clip of merry old St Nick as we heard that the EU was like Santa Claus and because “the farmers have all been good” the Department of Agriculture was “making sure everyone gets their presents”.

There was no reference made to the reasoning behind this payment scheme: to compensate for the underpayment of farmers for their products, underpaid to keep retail prices low for the consumer.