Liam Delaney,
Portlaoise suckler beef farmer“I’m an active farmer. There are farmers getting Single Farm Payments in nursing homes.
“If the Government is serious about keeping the active farmer, what’s a lad... in a chair in a kitchen and he’s getting entitlements and a gobshite out doing the work? That’s not right.
“We have enough of problems coming down the line with Mercosur, and Brexit – so if this CAP is not straightened out fairly rapidly, there’ll be no one left.”
Francis Gorman, Laois IFA chair“It has been stated already that the budget is at base levels that existed 25 years ago. When it was decoupled, that in a sense was a cut, then it was modulated, then it was converged and that didn’t take into account inflation.
“I don’t care where ye get the money. Print it, borrow it, don’t steal it or hoodwink it, but that budget has to be increased to provide us with a decent income.”
Edmond Phelan, ICSA, Waterford“I’m going to meetings a long time and I always hear this thing about public goods. It drives me absolutely crazy.
“The greatest public good we provide is food and we’re not being paid for it. Bar dairying, everything else is working at a loss.
“We’re told to increase production, so production is going up, incomes are going down – where are we going?”
Angus Woods, IFA livestock chair ‘‘The next CAP budget is critical and the Government needs to redouble its efforts on it.
“On income, farmers are lagging well behind. We talk about environment, the civic good that farmers do.
“Well if we’re not financially sustainable, we can’t be green if we’re in the red all the time.
“In the last reform a lot of very good productive farmers took a beating, they got absolutely hammered, we have to be looking after the productive farmer.”
Read more
Listen: CAP 2020 - farm incomes, young farmers and the environment
Carlow calls for a bigger CAP cake
Liam Delaney,
Portlaoise suckler beef farmer“I’m an active farmer. There are farmers getting Single Farm Payments in nursing homes.
“If the Government is serious about keeping the active farmer, what’s a lad... in a chair in a kitchen and he’s getting entitlements and a gobshite out doing the work? That’s not right.
“We have enough of problems coming down the line with Mercosur, and Brexit – so if this CAP is not straightened out fairly rapidly, there’ll be no one left.”
Francis Gorman, Laois IFA chair“It has been stated already that the budget is at base levels that existed 25 years ago. When it was decoupled, that in a sense was a cut, then it was modulated, then it was converged and that didn’t take into account inflation.
“I don’t care where ye get the money. Print it, borrow it, don’t steal it or hoodwink it, but that budget has to be increased to provide us with a decent income.”
Edmond Phelan, ICSA, Waterford“I’m going to meetings a long time and I always hear this thing about public goods. It drives me absolutely crazy.
“The greatest public good we provide is food and we’re not being paid for it. Bar dairying, everything else is working at a loss.
“We’re told to increase production, so production is going up, incomes are going down – where are we going?”
Angus Woods, IFA livestock chair ‘‘The next CAP budget is critical and the Government needs to redouble its efforts on it.
“On income, farmers are lagging well behind. We talk about environment, the civic good that farmers do.
“Well if we’re not financially sustainable, we can’t be green if we’re in the red all the time.
“In the last reform a lot of very good productive farmers took a beating, they got absolutely hammered, we have to be looking after the productive farmer.”
Read more
Listen: CAP 2020 - farm incomes, young farmers and the environment
Carlow calls for a bigger CAP cake
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