Tag Archives: Common Agricultural Policy

ICSA chief says support for organic farming ‘excessive’ relative to other sectors CLARE’S suckling enterprise, which generates an annual injection of an estimated €60 million into the local economy, is being short changed under the latest CAP Reform proposals, a local farm leader has claimed. ICSA secretary, Eddie Punch has called on Clare’s Oireachtas members to address the significant underfunding of direct supports for Clare suckler, beef and sheep farmers under the government’s proposed package under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). While Mr Punch supports organic farming, he believes the proposed funding of €256 million for this sector is “off the richter scale”. In 2020, there were 66,232 calves registered as born to a suckler cow in Clare. This puts Clare as the third highest county in Ireland for suckler cows behind Galway and just marginally behind Mayo. ICSA secretary, Eddie Punch stressed the suckler enterprise is hugely important for sustaining rural towns and villages in Clare. “Marts like Ennis, …

Clare Beef Plan questions the transparency of department consultation CONCERN about the transparency surrounding an online Town Hall-style meeting in relation to proposed changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been expressed by a local farming representative. Clare Beef Plan vice-chairman, Pat Nagle, isn’t happy with the way the two and a half-hour meeting was conducted by the Department of Agriculture as part of its efforts to involve farmers in a public consultation process. Mr Nagle, who participated in the virtual meeting, recalled Department officials outlined a section of the CAP proposals concerning suckler operators. “You could ask a question, but you didn’t know whether it would be answered or not. Beef Plan submitted a number of questions and I believe none of them were answered. It would have been better if the questions posed were displayed visually in some format, which would be far more transparent.” The Liscannor farmer claimed the meeting was akin to a “tick the …

CLARE farmers who received €100,000 in Pillar One payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are facing a possible cut of €34,000 following agreement on a new CAP deal. It looks as if direct payments under Pillar One will be effectively capped at €66,000 on a phased basis from 2023 onwards. According to figures obtained by The Clare Champion, CAP payments totalling €84.67 million were paid to 6,254 Clare farmers from October 16, 2019 to October 15, 2020. This included a payment of €1.88 million to Clare LEADER for rural development. ICSA secretary, Eddie Punch, expressed concern that Clare farmers are being asked to do more and more for less money. He said the main objective of CAP was to compensate farmers for providing cheaper food to consumers. In relative terms, he pointed out consumers are paying much less for their food when compared with their take-home pay now than 30 years ago. He outlined the price paid to farmers …