Active farmers should have continued access to CAP payments regardless of their off-farm employment status, the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association’s (ICSA) rural development chair Edmond Phelan has said.

Phelan has warned that European Commission plans to restrict access to CAP funds “only to those persons whose principal activity is agriculture” puts Irish farm families’ security at significant risk.

The ICSA’s statement came in response to comments from a senior Commission official to the Irish Farmers Journal last week suggest that Brussels’ plans to target CAP payments after 2027 could include at least some of the country’s genuine and active part-time farmers.

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“Emerging proposals at EU level could restrict future CAP payments to farmers whose principal income comes from agriculture,” the rural development chair said.

“However, there is a fundamental misunderstanding at the heart of these proposals.

“Irish farmers are not working off-farm because they are inactive, they are doing so because farming alone is not delivering a viable income.”

Phelan stated that the EU cannot ensure food security if it assumes that the only farmers contributing food security are those who derive a majority of their income from farming.

However, many drystock farmers are “working full days on their farms and taking on all the risks that come with producing food, yet still have to rely on off-farm income to keep things going,” he said.

“If introduced, this would have serious consequences for beef and sheep farmers. While it is being presented as simplification, it risks becoming just a very simple way of excluding genuine working farmers.”

Of similar concern to the ICSA is the Commission’s proposal to stop CAP payments to farmers receiving state pensions by 2032, which Phelan said “makes no sense on the ground”.

“Many older farmers are still actively farming and playing a key role in keeping farms going.”

The ICSA warned that removing supports for older farmers “would undermine generational renewal and disrupt the gradual handover of farms”.