The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
FG letting farmers down by not fighting harder against 5% CAP cut - Brassil
FIANNA Fáil TD for Kerry John Brassil has said that cuts to the Common Agriculture Plan budgets will severely damage the ability of Kerry farm families to stay afloat and to remain financially viable.
Deputy Brassil was commenting after it was announced that there would be a 5 per cent cut to the CAP Budget from 2020.
“I am very concerned that Fine Gael are not going to fight hard against this cut. There’s no two ways about it.
“Fundamentally, this arises from the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. This will undoubtedly impact the overall budget for CAP programmes.
“It has been estimated that the UK leaving the EU will result in a €4 billion per-year gap in funding which the remaining 27 member countries will have to fill.
“CAP payments make up around 75 per cent of total farm incomes in Ireland, and any reduction in subsidies will have a seriously detrimental impact on thousands of farmers and their families.
“The way to stop cuts in CAP budgets is ensuring that the gap arising from Brexit is matched by increased contributions from all EU member countries.
“Unfortunately, the Irish Government have caved in to pressure from other EU counties and agreed to only partially increase contributions.
The net effect of this will be cuts in CAP programmes no matter what way Fine Gael tries to spin it.
“This is the second cut to CAP budgets under Fine Gael’s watch. A 10 per cent cut was applied under the 2014-2020 CAP deal.
“It seems to me that Fine Gael in government is happy to go along with the anti-farming agenda of certain EU member countries. How is the Irish Government honestly letting this proposal get this far?
“The Government must go back to the negotiating table and secure agreement to increase contributions to avoid any cuts to CAP budgets.
“If Fine Gael truly value locally-grown, quality produce from family-run farms, then they won’t agree to this cut that will severely reduce the viability of Kerry farms,” concluded Brassil.