The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has strongly criticised comments from Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, who suggested that a meeting held on Monday brought Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) talks closer to providing farmers with stable and fair incomes.

The ICMSA’s president, Denis Drennan, has called on Minister Heydon to clarify his remarks in the context of looming reductions in the 2028-2034 CAP’s budget.

There are indications that several EU member states are pushing to slash several hundreds of billions of Euros off the European Commission's proposed budget total.

The comments referenced by the ICMSA followed a meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels. The minister claimed the sit-down “brought us another step closer to agreeing a CAP that is fit for the future and that farmers need a policy that provides stability and a fair income while giving them the flexibility and support to respond to the challenges ahead”.

Challenge

This view has been challenged, however, by the ICMSA.

“Firstly, how is the minister going to deliver this in the context of a proposed reduced CAP budget and, secondly, what new policies will be put in place to deliver that stability and fair income in a context where the current CAP has spectacularly failed to deliver either?” Drennan asked in response.

“What changes does Minister Heydon envisage that will deliver that stability and fair income?”

The ICMSA leader added that income instability is the “single biggest challenge facing the sector” as he referenced depressed 2026 milk prices and beef price cuts amid increasing costs.

“The minister needs to explain how the current direction of CAP negotiations is going to address this – or at the very least make it better," Drennan said.

“There is no evidence to date from either our government or the EU that they are serious about addressing the chronic volatility within the sector, and ICMSA considers it hugely disappointing that Ireland has so far put forward no proposals to deliver the stability and a fair income that Minister Heydon correctly identifies as the absolute minimum that is required.

“Farmers need to hear Minister Heydon answer the fundamental question on which everything else turns: is CAP going to be a policy to support food-producing farmers or is it effectively going to become an environmental policy.”