IFA president Francie Gorman has said that if there are further CAP budget cuts in the coming six months to seal the deal on the wider EU budget then it will be Armageddon for Irish agriculture.
Gorman was speaking at the Irish Farmers Journal stand at the Tullamore Show on the current state of play for the next CAP post-2027.
“If we end up where we are today with the budget, there’ll be a payment of €130/ha for everybody in this country. That’s it. There’ll be no value in entitlements, you’ll get paid a lump sum of €130/ha when you put in your payment.
“And if they table a further budget cut before the end of this six-month period to get agreement on the budget, that could be cut another 4-or-5%, that’s Armageddon for the Irish agricultural sector,” he said.
Gorman said that the if the funding is there, the IFA wants to see farmers who are farming the land, calving the cows, lambing the ewes and growing the grain receive payments.
“We want to see everybody treated fairly and we want to see people who are farming rewarded,” he said.
Gorman said he believes it is still possible to increase the CAP budget to current levels.
His comments come as Taoiseach Micheál Martin told those at the show that an “adequately funded, practical and workable” CAP is Ireland’s goal for the current CAP reform.
He stated that the intent to merge CAP’s currently standalone budget into a larger fund that caters for non-farming spend must be struck with balance as CAP funds “underpin our food security, our competitiveness and economic viability of many areas in Ireland and across the EU”.
SHARING OPTIONS