DEAR EDITOR,

I’m a small Connacht-based suckler farmer, selling weanlings at year’s end. To qualify for the new Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme, I’m forced – and without any consultation – to be “quality assured” by Bord Bia so that I can draw down my income.

After a recent audit, it appears I got a mark of 97%. However, in recent days I’ve been contacted by Bord Bia to say that they will not close out my audit until I show evidence that I have recycled my waste plastic. I have been doing this for as long as there has been a service to, and long before Bord Bia told me to.

I assured the caller that I would be bringing my plastic to my nearest recycling depot at a date in June. This was not acceptable to them and their bureaucracy though, as the “close-out date” for my audit is now in May apparently.

Having banged my head off a block wall for some time, I was then informed that I would have to provide evidence that I had “tidied up” my already reasonably tidy pile of plastic. Plastic, I remind you, that is already piled up against a wall in a corner of my yard awaiting disposal. It is not thrown around the school, church or local shops with people tripping over it.

Insults

Is there no end to the insults, arrogance and interference farmers must put up with on a daily basis from our masters in Government and their Departments?

For me to claim my suckler wages, I’m forced to enter a “quality assurance” box ticking exercise by the Minister, Department of Agriculture and Bord Bia, which is utterly irrelevant and useless to me and my farming enterprise.

If I fail to bow down and comply with their diktats, they will happily decide to withhold my money. The sooner that Farmers/Rural Political Party gets up and running, the better.