Family dairy farms must be Irish priority
THE President of ICMSA said Ireland’s overriding priority for CAP 2020 had to be the maintenance of the overall CAP Budget. Pat McCormack said the direct payments to farmers under CAP had a very significant ‘multiplier effect’ as they went out into the wider rural communities and it was impossible to exaggerate how critical the payments were to the continued viability of family farms especially in challenging years like the current one. He acknowledged the efforts being made by Minister Creed to reach out to similarly inclined Member States and build a coalition aimed at maintaining the CAP Budget and he stressed that this must be considered a national interest on which Ireland could not compromise. That must mean the involvement of the Taoiseach and concentrated work at the level of Heads of State. In the event, however, of the Commission forcing through measures that would result in reduced direct payments then ICMSA’s position was crystal-clear: priority and precedence must be given to active farmers who depend on farming for their income. Active farmers – whether dairying, beef, cereal or any other type – were most dependant on the payments and therefore must be given priority in terms of protection. Mr McCormack said that ICMSA was particularly concerned about the position of family dairy farmers, that group was extremely vulnerable in terms of workload, price, income volatility and borrowings and – on that basis – should be recognised as a priority in terms of direct payment recipients.
Mr McCormack was particularly concerned that the thousands of farmers concerned were, effectively, no wiser after this announcement as to what it would mean to them individually and that translating these statements of intent and strategic aims into an easy-to-understand guide as to how the new system would function for each individual farmer must now be the next step. He noted that farmers had been promised ‘simplification’ before but it had never materialised and the signs for rules and regulations around this CAP were not particularly promising either
Mr McCormack said ICMSA would continue to demand that the interests of the family farm were recognised and protected. He made no apology for this but stressed that this was not a question of imposing a hierarchy of farmers but was instead a factual recognition that this group were our most active farmers who had most at stake and must, therefore, be our priority.