€2,000 cut in EU cash to farmers since 2011
THERE has been a significant drop in direct payments made to farmers from Europe over the past three years, according to figures released by Fianna Fáil Agricultural Spokesman, Éamon Ó Cuív.
He said that the average direct annual payments for farmers in the 2007 to 2011 period – when Fianna Fáil were in power – was €1.965 billion as compared to €1.722 billion for the 2013 to 2015 years.
Deputy Ó Cuív said that this represented an average cut of €243 million per annum or 14% in terms of the funding making its way into the pockets of farmers.
He said that this cut in direct payments translated into an average reduction of €2,000 for individual farmers across the country and was a direct hit on critical income.
“This is a major indictment of the inability of this Fine Gael/Labour Government to ensure adequate funding both from the exchequer and from Europe for the Irish farm sector.’
“It exemplifies the decreasing importance being attached to agriculture as a driving force in our economy. This €243m is coming out of the pockets of farmers and is having a negative impact on the wider community across all businesses, suppliers and services in rural areas,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.
He said that if this wasn’t bad enough, major income issues had also arisen in relation to the vegetables, liquid milk, beef, sheep and dairying sectors.
Dairy farmers, he added, were now looking at the added burden of facing into substantial financial penalties because of the final superlevy fines coming into play before the abolition of quotas.
“I really think that our Minister for Agriculture has singularly failed to get any movement on relief measures for farmers being impacted by the superlevy fines.
“Quotas are to be abolished from April 1 next, and the total European milk supplies are well under quota. In those circumstances, I fail to see how Minister Coveney has not been able to progress this issue,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.