The nerves are jingling among Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed’s inner circle about an unpleasant outcome to the CAP negotiations.

To ensure any blame down the road doesn’t fall only on his shoulders, the Corkman’s strategy has been to invite all and sundry for consultations.

All the political parties and farm organisations were therefore invited into this week’s CAP consultation in the plush Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, Co Kildare, with lunch laid on as an added incentive.

Charlie McConalogue, Willie Penrose, Martin Kenny and Eamon Ryan attended for Fianna Fáil, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Green Party respectively and – very unusually – were even given speaking time.

Obviously, Joe Healy and Pat McCormack were invited to lead in teams from IFA and ICMSA. But there were also invitations for the farm organisations who have been more used to cold shoulder than hot lunch from the Minister in years gone by.

Invitations

So invitations went to Paddy Kent at ICSA, Colm O’Donnell at INHFA and even Bobby Miller’s Irish Grain Growers.

The Agricultural Consultants Association was also invited.

These political parties and lobby organisations will find it more difficult to criticise a CAP outcome given that they’ve now had a hand in shaping it.

However, the more experienced operators were careful to maintain a distance from the Minister.

The Dealer hears that McConalogue first and then Joe Healy warned that a sufficiently large CAP budget must be obtained – by Michael Creed of course – to avoid cuts in farmer payments.