New CAP Deal Must Deliver for Livestock Farmers - Harkin

FOLLOWING a public meeting organised by the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) in Sligo town on Thursday 23rd January, Independent candidate Marian Harkin welcomed the new direction of CAP policy which would allow full convergence of Pillar 1 payments and which would incentivise extensive farming practices through tailored Agri Environmental schemes she said;

“Farmers expressed real concern regarding their future sustainability, especially in light of the ongoing beef crisis and the threat of Brexit.

“There is an urgent sense that the new CAP must deliver the necessary supports to farmers in this region. Figures show that full convergence would deliver over €7 million to Leitrim, over €5 million to Sligo and approx. €17 million to Donegal.

“This extra money would be a huge boost to the local economy as farmers spend locally.

“There is also the real opportunity for suckler and sheep farmers to significantly improve biodiversity through extensive grazing on our High Nature Value Farmland”.

Brexit remained the most immediate and significant threat to suckler and sheep farmers in the region as well as possible trade deals such as Mercusur down the line, she said.

The fact that the next CAP had the capacity to deliver a better deal to the vast majority of farmers in the counties of the North West deserved the full support of organisations representing farmers, she said. “This will mean insistence on full convergence of CAP payments and front loading of payments on a set number of hectares”, she emphasised.

All farming, irrespective of type, played the pivotal role in sustaining the economic and social fabric of rural Ireland and, as such, deserved to be fully represented in National policy, she suggested. “As such it is incumbent on all of us to make sure that the Irish administrators of the new CAP do not dilute its intent and ensure that the payments intended by EU policy make their way fully to achieve the purpose for which they are intended”, she concluded.