A KEY proposal in the Common Agricultural Policy reform talks would do “huge damage” to the agri-food sector and Ireland needs to dramatically change it, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney told the Irish Farmers’ Association agm yesterday.
The proposal involves basing the single farm payment on farm size, instead of historical production. Mr Coveney said this would result in “a massive shift” in farm subsidies from the most productive sectors in agriculture to less productive sectors.
“We cannot have a situation where productive farmers are losing 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 per cent of their payment and when other farmers who may not need it are getting increases of 70 or 80 or 90 per cent in their single farm payment,” he said.
Mr Coveney was speaking after he met EU commissioner for agriculture Dacian Ciolos in Dublin yesterday.
He said it was up to Ireland to find a solution that Mr Ciolos could sell to other countries without people thinking Ireland was getting special treatment.
Mr Ciolos also addressed the 400-strong IFA gathering at the RDS and told farmers he was very conscious of the difficulties they faced. But he said it was not credible to have a system which based payments on production levels of 10 years earlier.
Mr Ciolos said he had made changes to the proposals specifically to suit Ireland, after Irish farmers had objected to using 2014 as a reference year on which to base the payment.
IFA president John Bryan said this would cause land rental prices to soar as landowners would try to maximise their acreage before 2014.
Mr Ciolos said he was planning a rule that only farmers who were entitled to payments in 2011 would be entitled to them in 2014. This would ensure that only active farmers received payments.
However, Mr Bryan said that the 2011 rule did not go far enough to deal with the unique land rental market in Ireland and would not prevent high-risk speculation. “Commissioner, these proposals will not work for Ireland and must be changed,” he said.
“The flat-rate proposal is too simplistic. It takes no account of major differences in the productive capacity of land or levels of investment and commitment by individual farmers.”
He also highlighted objections to the proposal that 30 per cent of the single farm payment be linked to “green” farming. Mr Ciolos told farmers that the future of the Cap was linked to the credibility that must be maintained and reinforced in the eyes of European taxpayers and consumers.
“With these reforms we propose to reinforce the partnership between farmers and society because I strongly believe that farmers, consumers and taxpayers in Europe have the same interests and objectives; to have a secure supply of quality, affordable food and at the same time to have it produced in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner.”
But he said he was open to suggestions on the reform of Cap, as long as they did not distort the budget. Mr Ciolos also said he was “hoping very strongly” that the Cap reform package would be agreed during the Irish presidency of the EU, which begins next January.
Earlier Mr Bryan told the IFA gathering that the medium- to long-term outlook for Irish agriculture was positive. Food production would need to grow by 70 per cent because of population growth, he said. And Mr Coveney said it was no exaggeration to say that agriculture was perhaps the most exciting sector to be in at the moment, from an economic perspective.
The IFA also lent its support to the Government’s position on the survival of the euro.
“I have seen for myself, in other countries, including Argentina, the devastating impact on businesses and families of a sovereign default,” Mr Bryan said. “There is no soft option in getting out of the euro.”
Addressing the IFA gathering last night, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the future trend of employment in the farming sector would depend heavily on the ongoing Cap negotiations. “It is simply vital that we get the right deal.”
