EU FARM PAYMENTS: THE BIGGEST EARNERS REVEALED
LARRY Goodman and his family, who through two farms – Branganstown and Glydee – received €217,153 and €214,275 in EU payments in 2016 – giving them a combined income of €430,000 in EU farm subsidies.
Mr Goodman has the largest EU farm payment by far of any individual in Ireland.
His home farm at Castlebellingham, Co Louth, is the 850-acre Branganstown enterprise. However, he also owns in excess of 1,100 acres in his Glydee farm at Kilsaren.
Mr Goodman is believed to own a further 350 acres as well as the privately owned ABP meat processing group.
Other Irish farmers who receive significant money in EU payments included Walter Furlong of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, at €429,824. Mr Furlong has built up a large grain production outfit with his business partner Kevin Cooney. Between them they own the Cooney & Furlong Grain Company.
O’Shea farms, owned by Richard, Thomas, Joseph and Seamus O’Shea in Co Kilkenny, received €244,693.61. Terence Coughlan, a tillage farmer outside Fermoy, tops the list of recipients in Co Cork. It is understood that he farms in the region of 2,000 acres and he received €227,469.
However, the individuals’ EU payments are surpassed by the €6m Teagasc receives and the €3.9m Commercial Mushroom PRS Co-op receives. Bord Bia received €2.28m last year, while Ornua received €1.6m.
In a recent FarmIreland survey, 75pc of farmers said they are unhappy with the current farm payment system and that payments are unfairly distributed, with many saying that they would prefer a fair price for their produce instead of subsidies.