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.

Viewers would be forgiven for believing that farmers were receiving bundles of cash rather than money paid into their accounts and taxed appropriately. The impression was that this money was a gift, a bonus, not a crucial component of farmers’ incomes without which many not only go broke, but hungry and homeless as well.

There are thousands of letters in thousands of homes around the country threatening retrospective fines despite these farmers paying for professional advisers to ensure their applications were correct over the years. There is a huge increase in farm inspections, the primary function of which seems to be clawing back as much money as possible from the farmer. And of course, there are those farmers who had the temerity to appeal the retrospective fines; they received no Single Farm Payment gift-wrapped by the Department under their Christmas trees.

They will have to wait, their payments delayed, their pockets empty and their caps in hand until the department makes a decision.

Grievances? What grievances? Sure in the midst of a recession, after yet another hard budget, Irish farmers were getting money for jam! A seven-day working week, a 12-hour working day, 24 hours on call in springtime, weather problems, fodder crises, uncertainty over income, ever-increasing costs, rafts of rules and regulations often requiring expensive compliance … money for jam.

Judith Davoren

Kilfenora

Co Clare