Irish beef farmers feel that they are being shafted at every turn when it comes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Mercosur, IFA president Joe Healy has said.

Speaking at the 2018 Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference on Friday, Healy said that farmers feel frustrated.

“Mercosur is very much on the minds of everyone this week and we have seen from a European point of view our [beef] exports increase by 17% in the last three years. That’s as a result of our price staying stagnant and being competitive on a world scale.

It was an average loss in the next CAP of €3,000 per farmer

“I come across incredible frustration among beef farmers out there because they feel they’re being shafted at every turn.

“On the CAP policy, they see cuts of €100m per year from an Irish point of view, to a budget that hasn’t been indexed for inflation for the last seven years.

“We did an exercise on it and I know average figures are dangerous but it was an average loss in the next CAP of €3,000 per farmer. Farmers do feel shafted by the likes of CAP, by the likes of Mercosur,” he said.

Climate change

Healy said that Irish farmers are doing what needs to be done when it comes to climate change and the environment.

“Forty per cent of our farmers are taking part in GLAS, 90% of our beef is being audited and 100% of our milk is getting there. We have 200,000 carbon audits on Irish farms even though we have only 130,000 farms.

They feel frustrated and that they are being shafted at every turn

“And despite all Irish and European farmers are doing, we see our representatives and negotiators in the European Commission, hell-bent on doing a deal with countries that are four to five times less efficient from a carbon footprint point of view than we are.

“They feel frustrated that they are being shafted at every turn. It’s not a level playing pitch. The next couple of weeks will be a huge test of all our representatives, whether it’s our Taoiseach, our Minister for Agriculture or Commissioner in relation to pushing back on a bad deal for European and Irish farmers.”

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