Offaly farmer takes part in 'flash action' outside European Commission office in Dublin

THE Chairman of Offaly IFA, Pat Walsh, was among the farming organisation's members who took part in the "flash action" protest outside the European Commission office in Dublin on Tuesday last.

This event was to coincide with the European Commissions Annual Budget Conference.

The challenges around the funding of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are huge with the Commission pushing for a single fund approach, observed Mr Walsh.

Meanwhile, IFA President Francie Gorman has called on the Department of Agriculture and Food to maximise all relevant measures within the CAP Simplification Package launched by the Commission recently, and to learn from the lessons of the past.

“There are a series of proposals within this package, especially those around inspections; derogations; supports for young farmers; and extending financial supports to support regulatory compliance; investment; working capital; and to mitigate adverse climatic events or other catastrophic events (such as animal health diseases or plant pests) that we need to secure to reduce some of the hardship and complexity for farmers,” he said.

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One of the principal issues which IFA lobbied for, both nationally and in Brussels, was in relation to GAEC-2 (Protection of Peatland & Wetland). Our position was clear: GAEC-2 should be removed from conditionality. We wanted an incentivised approach taken, with greater credit afforded to existing on-farm action, national & EU legislation and agri-environment scheme requirements toward the protection of peatlands & wetlands.

“Within the Simplification proposals, while the GAEC standard remains, opportunity/flexibility is now provided to Member States to satisfy GAEC-2 requirements. This will be without the need for additional practices for farmers, and for an incentivised approach, by removing baseline requirements from eco-schemes/agri-environmental schemes, to compensate beneficiaries for any cost/lost productivity associated with its compliance,” he said.

‘It is imperative that DAFM continue to push for GAEC-2 to be removed. In addition, they should swiftly introduce a dedicated eco-scheme/agri-climate intervention to compensate farmers for the costs incurred and income foregone in relation to implementing (some or all) the GAEC 2 requirements, and investigate if same can be replicated for those on designated lands given false promises of the past,” he said. 

“What also can’t be lost here is that this is now the second corrective package on the CAP within a single year. This fact should serve as a lesson for the future and shape our discussions. Farmers need policies that are coherent, consistent, meaningful, and implementable, with greater farmer input throughout, but particularly in design stage,” he said.

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“These principles must apply not only within the CAP but across wider and all EU policies that impact agriculture. In that regard, we have high expectations for the simplification measures already announced outside the CAP framework later in the year, as they too will directly affect the sector.”

“Finally, future simplification efforts must not undermine the common nature of the CAP or open the door to uncontrolled renationalisation. That would would mark the end of CAP as we know it, both in terms of its dedicated budget and two-pillar approach, targeting income support (Pillar 1) and rural development (Pillar 2) measures,” he concluded.