Decision to publish details of EU farm subsidies is criticised

A DECISION TO publish the payment details of the EU subsidies given to every farmer in the country has been described as a “charter for nosey parkers”.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has defended the decision, saying that it had no choice in the matter as all 27 member states have signed up to full disclosure of information relating to EU farm payments.

Some 16 member states have already introduced the data release scheme.

The directive was implemented in the UK, including Northern Ireland, three years ago.

Payments made under the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPs), the Early Retirement Scheme and other payments, made in the last financial year, will be published on the department’s website by September 30th.

Further disclosures, most notably the Single Farm Payment which is made to every farmer, will be published before the end of April next year.

The name of each farmer, the townland, county and the amount involved will also be published.

The European Commission has said the payments involved are taxpayers’ money and it is “very important that people know how it is spent”.

Labour agriculture spokesman Willie Penrose described the disclosures as a “bridge too far” and an example of “bureaucracy gone mad”.

He described the publication of payments as a “charter for nosey parkers”.

“It is personal financial information, and many of the recipient farmers live in isolated rural areas and confidentiality is important to them as indeed is their security,” he said.

The Fine Gael spokesman on community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs, Michael Ring, said publishing such details would attract criminals and infringed on the privacy of individuals living in rural Ireland.

“It made no sense and they wonder why the people in Ireland voted against the recent referendum.

“This is one of the reasons – over-regulation,” he said.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) also condemned the decision.

Its rural development chairman, Gabriel Gilmartin, described it as a “serious invasion of privacy”.

He added that the disclosure would cause farm families “serious distress”.

Although the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) president Pádraig Walshe said its organisation had been inundated with angry calls from farmers and that publication would serve no useful purpose, the IFA also said that farmers had nothing to hide.

“It’s a done deal and it is not going to be changed,” a IFA source said.

“The Single Farm Payment is paid out across 27 member states to help meet the stringent food safety, animal welfare and environmental standards demanded by the EU.”