Speaking during a visit to Richardson’s farm in Carlow today, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that rural Ireland is critical to Fine Gael’s plan to keep the recovery going.

“Fine Gael believes that work must pay for our farmers, fishermen, foresters and small food processors, most of whom are self-employed,” said Kenny.

“The average farming family have already seen their tax bills fall by €800 a year with our cuts to USC and reforms for the self-employed. Farmers are best positioned to benefit from Fine Gael’s plan to completely abolish the USC and ending the discrimination of the self-employed in the tax system.”

Sheep genomics payment

The party intends to introduce a payment on ewes that will be similar to the beef genomics programme that was introduced last year. It will not be identical to BDGP given the fact that the payment will be lower and the difference in management practices between beef cattle and sheep.

“I think that even when we agreed the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) no farming organisation was calling for coupled payments,” said the Minister for Agriculture and Cork South Central candidate, Simon Coveney.

“What they were looking for was targeted measures within the Rural Development Programme (RDP) to support maintaining numbers but also better practices which is where the beef genomics scheme came from.”

The Minister added that the BDGP programme is now being copied by other European countries because it is seen as a really “innovative and clever scheme”.

Hedgutting

An extension to hedgecutting and burning dates was proposed before the Dáil dissolved but was never officially brought into legislation. Coveney told the Irish Farmers Journal that Fine Gael will bring it in if re-elected to government.

“Heather Humphreys brought in a little more flexibility in terms of hedgecutting that was in consultation with her own department and farming organisations,” said Coveney. “I thought it was a sensible, practical measure which I think a lot of farmers would welcome so yes we will bring it in.”

In terms of dairy Fine Gael plan to establish a futures market in Ireland so that small scale co-ops can hedge against price volatility. While the pig sector has had a very difficult 12 months, Coveney believes that it is “a very exciting support sector” that can be protected through grant schemes such as TAMS.

Fine Gael has a Long Term Economic Plan to keep the recovery going for rural Ireland based on three steps; more and better jobs; making work pay and investing in better services.

Fine Gael’s ‘Long Term Economic Plan’ key points:

  • Implementation of Foodwise 2025 strategy to increase agri-food industry exports by 85% to €19 billion by 2025 and deliver 23,000 new jobs
  • €4bn Rural Development Programme
  • Implementation of €300m invested in taxation measures to encourage greater mobility and opportunity in the agri-food sector
  • The roll out of the Regional Action Plan for Jobs to drive local job creation and bring down unemployment to under 7% in all regions
  • National broadband coverage of 85% by 2018 and full coverage by 2020
  • New business opportunities for local post office network
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