Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has vowed to chase money from other funding streams in order to keep Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) envelope intact post-2027.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Tuesday at Ploughing 2026, he said that Ireland is currently facing a 22% reduction in funding in the next CAP budget.
“It’s not adequate, it would be a devastating blow for agriculture if that [cut] was allowed happen. We’re going to work really hard and look at every mechanism open to us to see what flexibility can come in,” he said.
Minister Heydon said that a balance needs to be struck in negotiations between designing the new scheme.
This, he said, is to make sure that there “is sufficient flexibility to realise that in Ireland we farm differently than Slovenia or Slovakia”.
Sweet spot
This is to ensure that the CAP is designed in a way that suits Ireland's farming system, he said.
“But in doing that, we need to protect the commonality of the Common Agricultural Policy. They sound like contradictory positions – they’re not, there’s a sweet spot there in the middle and we have to try and land on it.
“Wherever we have to chase money to make sure that we can keep the overall envelope, that’s what I’ll be trying to do,” he said.
He said Ireland in its position as holding the EU presidency does not control the finance element of the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF), the overall EU budget.
“We have our input and all member states have their input. But what I’m working to do with the other 26 ministers for agriculture on that AgriFish council is, in the next couple of months, to get an agreed position on all the things that doesn’t involve the budget, because that is really key.
“Negotiate the things we do control, so that we have an agreed platform to then go into trilogues with the European Commission and the European Parliament on those elements,” he said.
When asked if Ireland would use its veto in the MFF if it looks like CAP isn’t going to get what it needs, he said it was “too early in the process to be talking about anything like vetos”.
SHARING OPTIONS