Fianna Fáil Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan has "failed to go the extra step" for Irish sugar beet farmers, Progressive Democrats Minister of State Tom Parlon has complained.
On Wednesday Ms Coughlan awarded Greencore €98 million from the EU's €145 million sugar restructuring fund, while farmers received €40 million and contractors €7 million. "Her geographic distance from a beetgrowing area meant that she might not
have had the same feeling as a minister from a beet-growing area would have had," he told The Irish Times. "The EU taxpayer will now pay for redundancy payments due to Greencore workers in Carlow and Mallow, while the company will be left with hugely valuable properties," he said.
"The decision of Dublin-based property developer Liam Carroll to buy heavily into Greencore, following the decision of billionaire Dermot Desmond to sell, shows that it intends to exploit the properties' values to the maximum.
"I am disappointed that we were not able to give a greater share of the funds to beet growers," said Mr Parlon, who faces a stiff re-election battle in the predominately
rural Laois/ Offaly constituency. His remarks, though hardly unexpected, are likely to cause some difficulties for him with Ms Coughlan, but also with Tánaiste Mary Harney, who has little desire for conflict with Fianna Fáil in advance of the summer break.
"Irish farmers are going through a period of uncertainty. The Government needed to be seen to go the extra mile for growers. Politically, and otherwise, it was an opportunity to do that," Mr Parlon said. Ms Coughlan had followed the recommendations of Indecon consultants "like a legal letter. It was just a cold economic report that looked at the figures, but not at the lives of farmers", he said.
"I think the Minister for Agriculture was advised that her decision would be final provided that she did not stray too far from the EU directive," added Mr Parlon. Despite indications that Greencore is unhappy with the deal, Mr Parlon remarked: "I suspect that Greencore is not in the least unhappy. They have to be very happy with the situation."
The Minister of State wrote last week to Ms Coughlan urging larger compensation for farmers, following this up with three newspaper interviews that are understood
to have irked the senior Minister. Defending her decision, Ms Coughlan said yesterday that Irish sugar beet growers would get €214 million out of a compensation package of €312 million created to ease Ireland's departure from sugar production.
Besides sharing €47.1 million with contractors, farmers would also get €44 million of diversification aid and a further €123 million over seven years in EU single
farm payments, she said. The European Commission, she said, had originally proposed that farmers would get no restructuring aid. Under her decision, they would get compensation for the next 12 years.
