Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have chosen to speak on a different subject even though yesterday we had a very lengthy meeting of the Joint Committee on Health on the issue of cervical screening which revealed some very valuable information.

The European Commission yesterday stated that the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, budget is to be reduced by 5% and payments to farm families may be reduced by up to 4%. This bad news for Ireland was outlined yesterday at the unveiling of the multi-annual financial framework, which will run from 2021 to 2027. Does the Tánaiste share my concerns about these potentially disastrous proposals for Irish agriculture, in particular for small to medium-sized farms? This will be the first budget after the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, which departure will leave a gap of €12 billion in the European budget.

The Government must come clean on the future of Irish farming supports. There are serious issues coming down the line which will impact on Irish farm families. Farmers have been worried for some time and now have more reason to be worried that the CAP reduction will kick in from 2021. It is clear that the Commission does not believe that the remaining 27 members of the EU will make up the budget shortfall after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. Member states are being asked to increase their contribution by a very modest amount, but we do not know if they will do so. Commissioner Oettinger expects the cuts to be between 5% and 10%.

The proposed budget cuts have been well flagged. In response to a parliamentary question I submitted, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, stated that there are many challenges facing the CAP and the budget after 2020 but he hopes they will be addressed and farm supports maintained. That was clarified in no uncertain terms by the European Commissioner, Phil Hogan, who recently stated in Kilkenny that there will be a €12 billion deficit in the EU budget. He could not have been clearer in stating to farmers in Kilkenny that there will be a cut to the budget if member states do not contribute more money. Addressing the European Commission in January 2018, the Taoiseach indicated that Ireland will only make an enlarged contribution to the budget if the spend is on policies that contribute to the advancement of European ideals.

The only upside is that it will be two years before the budget is renegotiated, which gives the Government, MEPs and the Commissioner for Agriculture time to sort out this problem. That might be an impossible task. One of the biggest criticisms of CAP is that 80% of the budget goes to 20% of the farmers, so I welcome the commitment to supports for smaller farmers. In spite of that, we face a situation whereby farmers will have to move from expecting more to doing with less, which is a frightening challenge. Nevertheless, we must know how the Government proposes to manage this crisis.

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