Mixed response from farmers on ‘aspirational’ Govt programme

“LONG on aspiration and short on detail” – that was the immediate reaction from Kerry IFA Chairperson Pat O’Driscoll to the draft programme for government, details of which were revealed last week.

The draft programme has received a mixed response from the country’s major farming bodies, with praise for its scope and ambition, but criticism of a lack of specifics.

For instance, the draft committed to designing a flagship environmental scheme which has been likened to the former REPS scheme. This will provide financial supports to farmers in meeting climate, forestry, and land-use objectives – but how this will be funded and the extent of the funding remains unclear.

“How all these programme will be funded is the big question: are they just going to recycle funding from existing programmes?” Mr O’Driscoll told The Kerryman.

“There’s no detail on budgets, they deliberately avoided costing – which would make you sceptical as to whether it will be implemented.

“We welcome the announcement of it, but we want to see a properly funded scheme.

“There was a lot of concern beforehand about the Greens going into government, but you get the election results and it’s up to parties to come up with a programme for government.

We welcome the programme, but the detail of how it will be implemented is what we need now,” he added.

Aspects of the draft programme have been welcomed; there was considerable fear beforehand, for instance, that there would be a ban on live exports and a scrapping of the nitrates derogation, neither of which has come to pass.

Also included is a national review of forest, farm, and peat-bog land-use, with consideration for re-wetting bogs, carbon sequestration, and planting forests to reduce flood risks; and an economic and sustainability assessment of the controversial EU/Mercosur European-South American trade deal.

The announcement of a Food Ombudsman was also welcomed by Mr O’Driscoll, although he said the role will have to be given the necessary statutory powers to address issues in the food-supply chain and allow beef farmers to get a stronger price for their product, while he also expressed concern about a number of points outside of the agriculture section of the draft programme.

These include the loss of the Shannon LNG project and the phasing out of fur-farming – as required by the EU – a deeply controversial industry that has provided employment in the Iveragh region, where one of the few farms still operating in Ireland has been located.

“We’re about rural jobs as well, and these represented employment in peripheral areas. From a rural employment point of view, that’s disappointing,” he said.

IFA Kerry Chair Pat O’Driscoll