Today's Dáil address by EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has done nothing to convince farmers they can be earn a living in the sector, a farmers body said today.
President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) Jackie Cahill, described the Commissioner's speech as "more of the same aspirational and meaningless nonsense that has bedevilled the relationship between the Commission and Irish farmers".
Addressing the Dáil on a day reserved exclusively for debate on EU matter, Ms Fishcer Boel told the house there would be little further Cap reform in the foreseeable future and that farmers were entitled to policy stability.
But Mr Cahill said that while "untraceable and possibly infected South American beef" enter the EU market, farmers would remain sceptical about the of that stability.
Irish farmers are experiencing annual falls in income and "have lost all confidence in the ability of the Commission to organise European agriculture in a manner that will pay the primary producers - the farmers - a living wage," Mr Cahill said.
He also noted the US administration's "fierce and efficient defence" of its agriculture sector.