An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has committed to seeking a second Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) for Irish farmers, if he is in charge of forming the next Government. He told the IFA AGM on Tuesday evening that the money from the €25m underspend in BEAM will be rolled over into beef schemes this year.

He said that the Government would have to go back to the Commission to see what could be done to get the money out to farmers.

I don’t want to promise something I won’t necessarily deliver

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“If we can do a top-up system and the Commission will agree” then it could be rolled out to farmers.

“One thing I will commit to do, if I’m forming the next Government, is when I’m having the first round of meetings with the Commission, I’ll see if we can have another scheme.

“I don’t want to promise something I won’t necessarily deliver, but that is one of the things that I will do, if re-elected when engaging with the European Commission,” he said.

REPS

An Taoiseach also mentioned the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS).

“I know that talking to farmers, a kind of REPS seems to be a lot more popular than GLAS, so perhaps a new scheme which looks a bit like that would be a good thing to have,” he said.

Our ambition, as part of the next CAP, is to ensure there is a new scheme like BDGP, but one that is perhaps more user-friendl

He also highlighted the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) in his address to the AGM.

“Our ambition, as part of the next CAP, is to ensure there is a new scheme like BDGP, but one that is perhaps more user-friendly.”

National herd

Varadkar has said it is “not our policy to reduce the size of the national herd”.

“If we’re saying we’re not going to reduce the herd, then we have to do everything else to reduce emissions.

“We have to almost prove twice as hard that we’re going to do that in order to convince people that that’s the right policy – that we can bring down agricultural emissions without having to reduce the size of the herd.”

Ireland has “to drive ahead” with the implementation of the Teagasc report on the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC).