Farmers in Wexford say they have been left with their “blood boiling” and feel “disrespected” by the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Their frustrations were compounded by a stop-go presentation from Department officials as they struggled with Wi-Fi at the CAP information evening in the Talbot Hotel in Wexford town on Monday night.

The information evening was attended by 110 farmers and included an additional team of Department officials for one-on-one support to attendees before and after formal proceedings.

Disrespected

After hearing detail on CAP eco schemes and payments, Wicklow farmer James Hale said “farmers have been totally disrespected in all of this”.

Farmers James Hale and Liam O’Byrne at the event.

He said he wasn’t “in the business of assassinating messengers”, but asked that the Department staff “carry something back” to Government on farmers’ concerns.

Hale claimed that the presentations made did not show “the extent of the reduction in [CAP] payment” that many farmers in the southeast are facing.

“I don’t see there being money left to pay me anything going forward,” he said.

Advisers

The Wicklow farmer responded to comments made by the Department team that the direction of CAP follows the ask of the European taxpayer and that Ireland has had to develop a CAP plan in line with the European Commission’s requirements.

“The message [from the Commission] coming forward was that money must go to farmers, but what I’m hearing tonight is that there is more and more going to planners and advisers, be they private or part of the State mechanism. I find that horrendous.

“Every farm group said give us our money. Don’t make us spend our money with other people to get our money.”

Blood boil

Willie Power, from Adamstown, Co Wexford, said it makes his “blood boil” to see the people farmers feed making decisions that impact their livelihoods.

“All I see is farmers getting cut. Farmers are having to work harder and do more to get less and less,” he said.

Michael Doran told Department officials that Ireland has “an environmental challenge and we all need to deal with it, but there needs to be balance got”.

“I think the thing has gone so far off course that we are going to see implications that are going to be far reaching as a result of it,” he said.

Clearer picture

Doran said it was “very difficult to sit here and listen to some of the messages given” when the majority of the models the Department has provided show that the CAP “money is moving out of the southeast to other parts of the country”.

He criticised the Department staff for not giving a “clearer picture” of how their CAP payments are set to change.

“People came here to get an understanding of what actually is going to happen to them individually and how things are going to change. It’s just disappointing that that didn’t actually happen. It would be remiss if that message didn’t go back to Dublin.”

Reduction versus production

Several farmers at the information event said the environmental asks being placed on farmers, which they say will lead to a reduction in food production, are not compatible with the requirement to now produce more food due to the food security impact of the war in Ukraine.

Ger Rochford said: “The theme here this evening seems to be a reduction in production. Surely at this stage, food security would be far more important based on today’s events than it was in 2018 when the environment was top [priority].

“I’m not saying that the environment isn’t important, but there should be a balance with food security.

“With the present schemes that are there at the moment, I don’t think farmers will be able to produce to the same level that they were.”

The Wexford farmer warned that “the day will come when food will be scarce again” and asked what will be more important, “looking out the window at the birds and bees or having food on the table”.

Design

Sharing Rochford’s view, Tom Doyle said: “This whole scheme has been designed to reduce production. Now the world has been turned on its head in the last three or four weeks.”

He highlighted the mixed messaging coming from Government where the proposed CAP seeks greater environmental action while they have simultaneously called for enhanced food production in light of the war in Ukraine.

Doyle said: “Those aims are not compatible. This scheme as proposed was dreamt up by politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels and in other places when they assumed that there was an endless supply of cheap food out there. There’s now a sudden realisation that that doesn’t exist.

“Either that scheme has to be made redundant or the other talk about production has to stop because the two of them can’t work together.”

Feedback

Department officials committed to feeding the information and concerns shared by farmers on Monday night back to their relevant colleagues.

There was no one present to answer questions on TAMS or soil sampling, two topics which were included in a number of farmers' questions. However, email addresses were taken for later follow-up with these farmers directly.

The Department's series of information evenings continues with an event in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on Tuesday night.