May 28, 2021 12:53 pm
The Irish family farm model “would be critically undermined” under the proposed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) deal, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has claimed.
Commenting on the matter today (Friday, May 28), ICMSA president Pat McCormack said Ireland “will have to insist” that member states are given the necessary flexibility to address country-specific issues in any final deal, to avoid being undermined.
“On Thursday evening the ICMSA made a specific proposal to Minster [for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie] McConalogue whereby farmers under a defined level of payment are exempted from convergence.
“Convergence is a very crude policy that will severely hit many farmers with a high payment per hectare but low overall payment. Everyone agrees that it doesn’t suit the Irish model and a solution has to be found to this problem.
SHARING OPTIONS:
ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe has said that farmers need compensation for any inconclusives which test positive for TB and are removed from the herd.
Some 75% of cattle which had an inconclusive TB test result and were subsequently blood-tested have tested positive for TB, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) deputy president Lorcan McCabe has told the
Irish Farmers Journal.
A new inconclusive policy began in April, which sees inconclusives blood-tested.
“Of the ones coming back, 75% of the inconclusives blood-tested are coming back positive for TB,” he said.
The Department of Agriculture has said that the success of the new inconclusive policy was highlighted at Wednesday’s TB Forum.
May 25, 2021 6:02 pm
Farmers are concerned that the debate around the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is “being hijacked by vested interests – including within government”, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).
Commenting on the matter, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that a “sense of realism” urgently needs to be brought to the debate.
McCormack said that, based on the most up-to-date reports, Irish agriculture is headed towards a “situation where thousands of farm families across the entire country will suffer substantial cuts to their direct payments and incomes, while having to meet new and unsurpassed levels of inspection and regulation”, adding: