Irish farmers would prefer lesser cuts to Basic Payment Scheme and Rural Development Programme (RDP) monies in the next CAP rather than cuts to individual schemes should there be less money in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget.

The European Commission has proposed that the next CAP budget be cut by 5%, which is as a result of a combination of factors, namely Brexit, migration and security.

While the Irish Farmers Journal and Red C survey found that 47% of farmers would prefer lesser cuts to all CAP payments, 22% of farmers said they would prefer a cut to RDP scheme monies, such as the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Green Low-carbon Agri-environmental Scheme (GLAS) to maintain BPS payments.

Some 12% of farmers said they would prefer a cut in their BPS monies in order to maintain RDP schemes, while 19% of farmers said they did not know which option they would prefer.