The Taoiseach and key political figures must stand by Irish farmers in upcoming negotiations to deliver a stronger Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget that’s fit for purpose, Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Francie Gorman has said.

His comments follow a meeting of leaders of six EU member states (Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland), net contributors to the overall EU budget, in Berlin last week, where they called for drastic cuts to proposed EU spending across all policy areas.

Gorman said Ireland cannot accept any reduction in the CAP budget, given its importance to farm families and the rural economy.

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The Taoiseach and Tánaiste have key roles to play in designing the next EU budget, which is among the priorities for Ireland’s EU presidency, he said.

“What’s agreed will decide what’s available within CAP and other programmes in the years ahead. But approval requires unanimity across all 27 member states to progress and the Taoiseach cannot yield simply to progress."

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“Most of Ireland’s funding from the EU comes via CAP payments and as a net contributor ourselves, we can’t accept or countenance any reduction in the CAP budget that we have today.

“We need our Taoiseach and Tánaiste to stand tough on this and back Irish farm families.”

Political decisions and negotiations between now and year-end will decide how the EU budget is divvied out, the IFA president explained.

He stated that European farmers and CAP can’t pay the price for new priorities or lower-than-forecast elevated budgets.

“We’ve analysed the economic realities for farm families and rural areas of the current proposals and they’re stark and frightening.

“To accept any cut to CAP payments would be a direct hit to our oldest and largest indigenous economy.”