Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The money allocated for farming has fallen, despite all the boasting by the Minister that goes on in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Let us face the facts. According to a parliamentary reply, the level of direct payments from all schemes to farmers in County Galway decreased by 9% between 2011 and 2013, and that was before the fines. Further cuts are being made this year. This fantastic CAP that the Minister keeps talking about amounts to cut after cut. We were always going to get a CAP. The Minister comes in and says he has got so much so money. Did he think they were going to abolish the CAP altogether? The reality is that, over the next seven years, we will have less money, more schemes and even less money, more bureaucracy and red tape, more inspections and more penalties. On top of all this, the Minister is now saying that we are likely to have €160 million taken out of State funding for agriculture.

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