It is “ludicrous” for Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is to fight against new redistribution measures for direct payments in the next CAP, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy has said.

It comes as Department of Agriculture figures revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal show just over €3.6m in direct payments went to the 20 largest recipients in 2020.

“Department of Agriculture figures now show that two farms associated with Larry Goodman received €414,900 in 2020, an increase of almost €15,000 on 2019,” Carthy said.

“€15,000 is more than many farmers receive in totality.

“A single stud farm owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum received €222,300.”

“That these figures are released just days after Minister McConalogue jeopardised CAP negotiations in opposition to redistributive measures will come as a slap in the face to the majority of Irish family farmers that would benefit from such moves."

CAP talks

CAP negotiations that were expected to conclude last week ended without agreement on Friday.

During the talks, there had been resistance from farm ministers, including Ireland's, to the mandatory imposition of redistributive measures.

This would see front-loaded payment in the form of extra top-ups on the first hectares of a farm introduced on top of further convergence and capping.

“Sinn Féin wants CAP payments to be redistributed,” Carthy said.

“We believe that there should be a maximum upper limit payment of €60,000 and we believe that payments should be front-loaded to protect small and medium-sized farms.

“The Minister is fighting tooth and nail in Europe against any redistribution - he is demanding ‘flexibility’ not to implement measures aimed at delivering fairness.”

“In light of these new most-shocking figures, it is an absolute necessity that the Minister appear before the Dáil this week to explain his position.”