There were angry exchanges in the Dáil last week in the wake of failed EU talks to agree a deal on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
ivisions over the direction of the talks continued to widen between farmers, farm organisations and politicians as the IFA National Council last Friday voted to stage what it calls a ‘Nationwide day of action’ on June 11 to highlight how CAP reform and the Climate Action Bill, will both hit, it says, the most active, productive and viable farmers.
However, the move has been slammed by MEP Luke Flanagan who claimed the IFA are asking farmers to march against proposals on CAP which he says would improve the financial position of the majority of farmers. “Only in Ireland,” he said in a post on Twitter.
Meanwhile, in debates that lasted a number of days last week Sinn Féin agricultural spokesperson Matt Carthy attacked Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue over his stance on a host of controversial areas in the talks.
Pressing Tánaiste Leo Varadkar on the matter, Deputy Carthy said that when he was in opposition Mr McConalogue demanded increased fairness in farm payments, but in power, Minister McConalogue was delaying the entire CAP process and fighting against any measure of fairness.
“Most EU countries have moved to a flat rate payment per hectare in a process known as convergence. Such a process would benefit the majority of farmers in Ireland. A total of 60pc of Irish farms would get more.
“Why is the Government adopting a position in the CAP talks that runs against the interests of the majority of farmers?” he asked.
Mr Varadkar said the Government serves the interests of Irish farmers and Irish farm families in the talks. “The Deputy knows there has been convergence in recent years and this is the direction of travel. It does have consequences and there are winners and losers, and the losers are not all sheiks and beef barons. They are also family farms.
“There are parts of the country that may benefit and there are parts that will lose out. We have to look at all of these.”
Earlier in the week, Mr Carthy demanded Mr McConalogue address the Dáil on hismCnd positions in the talks. “We need to hear from the Minister as to why he has adopted an approach to those negotiations that will disadvantage the majority of Irish farmers,” Mr Carthy said.
On this occasion, the Taoiseach Michael Martin hit back at what he described as ‘outrageous’ assertions and said of Carthy's claims that “nothing could be further from the truth”.
“The Deputy's (Carthy’s) mask slips every so often in regard to his basically anti-European Union position....He has fought against the European Union all his life," the Taoiseach said.