The possible return of coupled payments has been described as a retrograde step which will be resisted by extensive farmers, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has stated.
INHFA chair Mícheál McDonnell said the organisation “strongly opposed” any proposal to reintroduce coupled payments under the next CAP.
The move was touted as a possibility last week by the Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.
Backward
McDonnell said reintroducing coupled payments was “a backward-looking policy that ignores market realities and the lessons of the past”.
“Coupled payments would reintroduce livestock retention periods, increased inspections, reference periods and unnecessary bureaucracy,” McDonnell said.
“Farmers would once again be making decisions to satisfy scheme rules rather than responding to the marketplace. That is not good farming policy,” he added.
“Coupled livestock payments would also damage market returns by forcing farmers to retain animals until qualifying dates, resulting in a glut of stock entering the market simultaneously,” McDonnell maintained.
“When markets are flooded, prices fall, and the real winners are the processing sector, not family farmers,” he said.
McDonnell contended that the reintroduction of coupled payments also contradicted the Commission’s stated objective of simplifying the CAP.
SHARING OPTIONS