The IFA will oppose any attempts to impose mandatory stock reductions as part of the pig sector support package approved by Cabinet this morning, according to the association’s president Tim Cullinan.

The announcement comes after Cabinet approved plans for a €13m pig scheme which would attach conditionality to the receipt of the scheme’s direct payments of up to €70,000 per pig farmer.

“While any funding is welcome, I am concerned that it will not be enough to stop departures from the sector. We are in real danger of losing a whole sector,” said the IFA president.

“We have seen the difficulties this has created with the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) scheme. It seems the Department has failed to learn any lessons from this,” added Cullinan.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that farmers eligible for payment under the scheme would be required to reduce production by 10%, complete a farm biodiversity assessment and report quarterly on antimicrobial usage on-farm, as well as receiving a check on pig tail biting.

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Cullinan had been questioned on the potential of a pig emergency aid scheme to attach unpopular conditionality to funds – similar to the BEAM scheme – by the Irish Farmers Journal in late March, when the IFA pig committee led a demonstration of pig farmers outside Ag House.

He responded by stating that pig farmers’ commitment to co-finance the deal through a levy system represented a form conditionality in itself.

“I suppose the conditionality is that farmers are willing to sign up to a statutory levy which ensures the €50m that the Department will loan to the sector will be paid back over a 14-year period.

“We are very clear that we are willing to sign up to the statutory levy and, as of yet, there is no other criteria around this package,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal at the time.