New funding must be found for proposed baseline biodiversity survey, warn hill farmers and ICMSA
COSTS associated with the proposed baseline biodiversity survey cannot be borne by farmers or be redirected from existing agricultural funding, the farm organisations have warned.
The ICMSA and INHFA insisted that new funding will have to be found for the biodiversity survey, which is a key element of the new Government’s agricultural strategy.
It is estimated that the survey, which is to be carried out in all farms, could cost up to €65 million to complete.
ICMSA president Pat McCormack, said the cost of such a survey cannot be foisted on farmers.
“This is a decision of the Irish Government and the costs, therefore, will have to be borne by the Government,” he said.
“There can be no question of money intended for farmers being dipped into to pay for a survey being carried out by employees of the Government or contractors retained by them. Whoever commissions the survey pays for it.”
Advisors
The INHFA said: “The baseline biodiversity survey as outlined in the programme for Government cannot inflict additional costs on farmers, and if the survey does go ahead then the estimated €65m needed to pay ecologists and advisors must be paid for by the State.
“Any budget needed for this should come from State sources other than the Department of Agriculture to ensure that muchneeded funding in the Department for existing or new schemes goes to farmers and is not re-directed into paying for this survey.”
Supporters of the biodiversity survey say the work is necessary to establish a baseline reference point from which to measure the effectiveness of future agrienvironment schemes and other related direct payments in light of the EU’s shift from action-based schemes such as GLAS to resultsbased programmes.
However, the ICMSA has questioned the wisdom of investing up to €65m in such a survey.
“You’d have to ask if this money would not be better spent by directing it to farmers to carry out specific tasks on their farms, rather than hiring a band of consultants to carry out what will probably amount to another paper exercise,” Mr McCormack claimed.