IFA president Tim Cullinan has said that Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue cannot sign up to the CAP reform that is emerging from Brussels.

Cullinan met with the Minister on Thursday morning in Brussels, before the Minister commenced another day of negotiations seeking to finalise details of the new CAP.

Commenting after the meeting, Cullinan said that while nothing has been agreed yet, the talks are going backwards, not forwards.

“Nothing has been agreed yet. The Minister should shout stop now until an air of reality is brought to matters,” urged Cullinan.

“Unfortunately, farming has become a minority sport in other member states, but it’s the backbone of the Irish economy. It is time for our Minister to call a halt to the nonsense,” he continued.

Farm viability

“The Commissioner and the European Parliament want to spread the money to keep a larger number of farmers in poverty,” warned Cullinan.

“Only one third of farmers in Ireland are viable. If the EU get their way, we will have no viable farm families.

“The EU Agriculture Commissioner is trying to turn the CAP into a social welfare payment rather than supporting farmers for producing food,” he said.

Cullinan went on to voice concerns on the level of flexibility afforded to member states in the new CAP.

“The European Commission set out on a journey in these negotiations to give member states more flexibility.

“But now we have an Agriculture Commissioner who wants to remove member state flexibility that existed in the last CAP.

“It is a complete contradiction and it’s time to stop the charade,” claimed the IFA president.