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Plans to continue convergence were put on ice this year by Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, who said that due to the “enormous logistical and operational requirements in the process, the time-frame was not available to consider making changes for 2021”.
The Minister confirmed recently that it is his intention is to ‘rest’ converge
SHARING OPTIONS:
All eyes will be on Minister McConalogue to see if he can make good on promises to provide redress for forgotten young farmers. \ Philip Doyle
In 2019, then Fianna Fáil spokesperson for agriculture Charlie McConalogue committed to putting a solution in place for the 3,900 “forgotten” young farmers who missed out on top-ups and grants in the last CAP because they had been farming in their own right before 2015.
“The boat sailed on them in the last CAP and the next CAP needs to redress that,” McConalogue said.
Fast forward a year and there is growing anger among the cohort that the now Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue seems to have neatly forgotten about these same young farmers.
The Irish Beef Sector Agreement was signed on 15 September 2019. After months of unrest at factory gates, then Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed convened the group to try to resolve differences through dialogue rather than protests. The agreement had two strands:
A number of immediate changes made to quality assurance bonus payment rates, the development of beef market price reporting and the review the Quality Payment Grid.
Looking at a number of strategic structural reforms, including a requirement to introduce more transparency and create a long-term plan for the Irish beef industry
Progress to date
An in-spec bonus rate of 12c/kg payable for steers and heifers under 30 months grading an O- with a fat score of 4+ has been introduced. A bonus rate of 8c/kg was introduced for steers and heifers aged 30 to 36 months and an increase from 12c to 20c for the standard in-spec bonus rate. The in-spec 70-day residency period was reduced to 60 days on the last farm.
Letter to the editor: Science is the future to make farming viable
In 2019 the food and drinks industry made history; I suspect due to innovation supported by science.
At the beginning of this year a report published by Bord Bia highlighted 2019 as having the highest level of exports in Bord Bia’s 25-year history bringing to a close a decade of consistent and extraordinary growth in which food, drink and horticulture exports have grown by 67%, or €5.5 billion since 2010, as I understand it.
Bord Bia’s figures show that food and drink exports have grown by 7% to €13 billion. The then Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed stated that it was to acknowledge the contribution that Ireland’s farm families have made to this export performance, and to recognise the need for the supply chain to deliver a reasonable commercial return for those upon whom the production of high quality consumer products and raw materials depends.