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A massive €380m GLAS underspend is looming. Fianna Fáil is asking for this money to be diverted into a suckler scheme and a boost to ANC payments.
Coupled payments will be an option, and one Ireland is more likely to take this time
Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalogue said just over €1bn of the €1.4bn allocated to GLAS in the current CAP budget will be needed to fully pay the 49,000 farmer participants.
He wants funding redirected to low-income farmers, and for GLAS to reopen for new applicants.
Suckler losses
Exclusive Irish Farmers Journal analysis by Adam Woods shows suckler farmers have suffered a loss of €200/cow in direct payments over the last decade.
The IFA has renewed its call for a €200/cow BGDP payment.
Meanwhile, the shape of the future CAP has been unveiled by European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan, with more threats to the payments Irish farmers receive.
Farm payments
Budgetary pressures from competing interests such as migration, Brexit and defence costs mean holding payments at current levels is an ambitious target.
Capping of farmer payments at €60,000 to €100,000 is again on the agenda.
Coupled payments will be an option, and one Ireland is more likely to take this time. Greening, an option worth a 30% top-up payment until now, will be a core element of the base payment.
Climate change mitigation is a central theme in Commissioner’s Hogan’s CAP paper.
McConalogue visits fodder-short farmers
SHARING OPTIONS: