IFA president Francie Gorman has said that the association should renew the debate around CAP headage payments in a bid to halt the flow of money heading to “armchair” farmers and landowners not engaged in active farming.
Gorman said that the IFA is unanimous on wanting payments targeted towards active farmers “irrespective of where you are or what scale you are farming to or what intensity”.
“We will have to debate in the association how we look at coupled supports for people who are farming, and that doesn’t mean that sectors should be excluded,” Gorman told the Irish Farmers Journal at the IFA’s AGM on Tuesday.
“Primarily, if you want to reward people who are farming the land, you have got to reward people who have the stock and who grow the crops. Otherwise, you are rewarding people for owning land, sitting in an armchair, leasing it out.”
However, the IFA leader also expressed an intent to push for the entitlement-based model of direct payments to remain into the next CAP due to begin in 2028.
“There is a proposal there in the CAP to do away with the value of entitlements, which is an absolute flattening.
“We haven’t discussed that, but I would have a concern about it because there is a value on entitlements to farmers. It’s theirs, they have built it up and I would be interested to know how that plays out.”
Gorman claimed that he considers talk of a further flattening of payments to be a red herring because by 2027 there will be very little difference between the top and the bottom.
“Our position is that we want to see farmers that are producing food, farming the land and delivering environmental goods rewarded in this,” he continued.
“And [we want] no differentiation taken if you were from the hills of Donegal or Kerry or the lowlands of Co Laois or you were milking cows or farming sheep. Every farmer has to be looked after fairly.
“We are not going to differentiate between size or sector; we want to be able to design a CAP that looks after everybody and that focuses on producing food.”
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Watch: Gorman flags CAP and Mercosur as IFA's two biggest battles in 2026
IFA president Francie Gorman has said that the association should renew the debate around CAP headage payments in a bid to halt the flow of money heading to “armchair” farmers and landowners not engaged in active farming.
Gorman said that the IFA is unanimous on wanting payments targeted towards active farmers “irrespective of where you are or what scale you are farming to or what intensity”.
“We will have to debate in the association how we look at coupled supports for people who are farming, and that doesn’t mean that sectors should be excluded,” Gorman told the Irish Farmers Journal at the IFA’s AGM on Tuesday.
“Primarily, if you want to reward people who are farming the land, you have got to reward people who have the stock and who grow the crops. Otherwise, you are rewarding people for owning land, sitting in an armchair, leasing it out.”
However, the IFA leader also expressed an intent to push for the entitlement-based model of direct payments to remain into the next CAP due to begin in 2028.
“There is a proposal there in the CAP to do away with the value of entitlements, which is an absolute flattening.
“We haven’t discussed that, but I would have a concern about it because there is a value on entitlements to farmers. It’s theirs, they have built it up and I would be interested to know how that plays out.”
Gorman claimed that he considers talk of a further flattening of payments to be a red herring because by 2027 there will be very little difference between the top and the bottom.
“Our position is that we want to see farmers that are producing food, farming the land and delivering environmental goods rewarded in this,” he continued.
“And [we want] no differentiation taken if you were from the hills of Donegal or Kerry or the lowlands of Co Laois or you were milking cows or farming sheep. Every farmer has to be looked after fairly.
“We are not going to differentiate between size or sector; we want to be able to design a CAP that looks after everybody and that focuses on producing food.”
Read more
Watch: Gorman flags CAP and Mercosur as IFA's two biggest battles in 2026
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