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Macra Na Ferime has described Budget 2020 as “largely uninspiring”. It also questions whether it is enough to mitigate the potential damage to Ireland’s young farmers and rural youth.
The organisation welcomed the continuation of farm restructuring relief, as it helps with the issue of farm fragmentation, but Macra president Thomas Duffy said: “We need to see how the €85m investment in the event of a no-deal Brexit will help young beef farmers adapt to new markets.”
Perfect storm
He is happy that the Department of Agriculture has shown understanding of the importance of Irish agriculture and rural Ireland to the overall economy, although the organisation has said that the beef industry has been hit by a perfect storm of European oversupply and Brexit driving prices unsustainably low.
We really need to see how Government intends to roll out funding
The lack of detail for areas of rural transport, the development of the rural broadband network and climate change for rural areas has presented some concerns for the organisation.
“As they say, the devil is in the details and we really need to see how Government intends to roll out funding,” said Duffy.
He called for action to increase rural innovation and work-from-home opportunities, rather than “just carbon taxes for greenways and bike lanes”.
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