Securing the CAP budget, deciding who the money goes to, and food security were among the main issues raised at the IFA regional meeting in Athy, Co Kildare, on Monday night.
The IFA president Francie Gorman suggested that the Government should not accept a reduced Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget.
“If we can't get a good deal, our Government should be brave enough to say we're not putting down any proposals,” he said.
He added that small additions to the budget pot, far from representing success, “will be agreeing to disaster”.
Current CAP
Gorman said the current CAP rewards land ownership and not activity.
“We want to see activity on farm rewarded. The CAP today rewards land ownership to pay you on the hectare of land that you put in for your basic payment,” he said.
The IFA president said anything less than €500bn in the CAP budget means the farm sector will not be supported in the way it needs to be.
IFA director of European affairs Liam McHale said if Ireland can use its Presidency of the Council of the European Union to convince other Member States to think the same “we can look to claw back some of those huge cuts that were proposed by the Commission”.
Pensioners and young farmers
Gorman said that people should not be penalised based on age when receiving CAP payments.
“If you're producing the food, irrespective of what age you are, [you] should be able to draw your basic payment. That's our position on it,” he said.
He said he can't see any politician taking a decision to exclude people drawing their basic payment based on age or because they're working off-farm: “If you have the land in your name and you're producing the food, you should get the payment.”
However, some comments from the floor argued that if CAP payments are scarce, they should go to young farmers.
It was highlighted that, currently, about 3% of CAP is ringfenced for generational renewal and the Commission is recommending 6% to be ringfenced in the next CAP. However, Gorman said this is a difficult proposition in light of the current CAP budget cut. He also noted that it is up to the country itself to ringfence such young-farmer funding.
“It's becoming much harder to persuade young people to come home, particularly to come home and farm full-time, and without those supports, whether it's state aid supports or the CAP,” he said.
Food-security concerns
Addressing a question from the floor as to who is going to feed the world, Gorman said there is growing concern on availability of certain types of food.
“There is a dawning realisation on the food industry, on the need of a certain level of product produced in Europe,” he said.
“If we don’t produce it here, it will be produced somewhere else, less efficiently and [causing] more damage to the environment.”
The IFA president acknowledged that the Irish Horticulture Grower-Retail Charter was a positive development as retailers finally realised there is an issue; however, he said he still worries if a better price will be passed back to vegetable growers.
Budget 2027
On the topic of the Budget next week, Gorman said his one ask in relation to tuberculosis (TB) was for valuations to be increased.
“If there was one single thing that I would like the Minister to do, it would be to increase those valuations to reflect the value of stock,” he said.
He highlighted that it is one of the most distressing issues affecting farmers.
“It affects individual farmers in a penal way that doesn't affect the greater mass,” he said.
Other Budget requests Gorman wants addressed include the fuel scheme, co-financing of the fertiliser scheme, the cost of doing business, flat-rate VAT, TAMS and energy.
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