Some farmers have reacted angrily to proposals that payments in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would continue to be redistributed from big to small farmers post 2020.

“You’re making viable holdings unviable. It seems to me that you’re not supporting the full-time farmer at all,” one farmer told Department of Agriculture officials at a Department consultation meeting in Mitchelstown last Thursday.

Under current proposals, there would be an eco-scheme in Pillar I and some farmers were unhappy with this.

It will be optional for farmers to enter the scheme but if they do not they will lose a significant portion of their direct payment. “Why should I leave sectors of my farm unproductive?” the farmer asked.

“That’s like telling hotels or restaurants to leave 10% of their business idle.”

However, farmers attending the meeting were handed some hard truths by Department officials.

“Our animal numbers are up, our fertiliser sales are up, our soil fertility isn’t really going anywhere and the last report from the EPA showed our water quality was down by 3%,” Niall Ryan from the Department’s nitrates division told farmers.

In the context of climate change, farmers were told that much more would be expected of them in the next CAP.