Many farms ‘would not survive financially' without CAP payments
A minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has told the Dáil that 'many Irish farms would not survive financially without Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, and we should not lose sight of that'.
Minister Timmy Dooley told TDs that there 'has been much progress on CAP implementation in Ireland'.
'Of course, there will always be issues that will give rise to specific concerns for certain sectors but let us not rubbish what is an important aspect of farmers' incomes,' the minister added.
However, during a Dáil debate yesterday (Thursday, May 16), government ministers were told of the 'deep concerns of Ireland's farming community regarding some of the proposed CAP reforms'.
The Labour TD, Robert O'Donoghue, said the suggestion to merge Pillars I and 2 into a single fund 'has been met with significant apprehension across the farming sector'.
'Merging these two pillars risks diluting the targeted supports that each provides, potentially undermining the effectiveness of both income support and environmental measures,' he warned.
Deputy O'Donoghue told the Dáil he also wanted to highlight the 'urgent need for a single, unified farmland mapping system to be used consistently across both CAP Pillars 1 and 2'.
'The current duplication of the systems is causing unnecessary delays, creating administrative burdens and leading to confusion for farmers and administrators alike.
'Farm families are the backbone of rural Ireland. They are not just economic units but living traditions passed on from one generation to the next,' the TD added.
CAP
The Independent Ireland party leader, Michael Collins, warned that that 'many farmers feel that CAP payments disproportionately benefit larger and wealthier farmers'.
'Smaller farmers struggle to compete and receive less support. This issue has arisen in my constituency.
'It was an issue for me when I was farming. It was a serious issue for a lot of people. There was an unfair balance and that needs to be rectified in any new CAP negotiations,' Deputy Collins added.
According to the Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Martin Kenny, the CAP term should be extended to 'eight or ten years' to give farm families more certainty to plan for the future.
Deputy Kenny said one of the key issues currently facing farming 'is the uncertainty of the future'.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday he also urged the government to address the 'consistent delays in payments, of which a prime example is the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES)'.
'Farmers are waiting up to two years for ACRES payments. These delays are for the most part the department's fault, which of course blames IT issues.
'We hear the government talk about simplifying the CAP and reducing the bureaucracy and red tape for farmers.
'It must have forgot to tell department of agriculture this because the department continues to come up with more and more complicated schemes that even its own officials do not understand,' Deputy Kenny.
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