Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The main discourse around the CAP negotiations is pitting the small against the big farmer. It highlights how 100% convergence would see a big shift of money from the south and east to the north and west. The main narrative missing in this discourse is a vital player in this game, one who potentially stands to lose the most, namely, the farmer with a medium-size farm. Having spoken with farmers of this scale in my constituency of Clare, they have genuine concerns about the future viability of their farms.

Medium-sized farmers stand to lose a lot if they cannot come up with the resources to implement an eco-farm scheme as they will not qualify for CAP payments if they do not transition. Thus far there has been little or no clarity about what this eco-farm scheme will look like. This ambiguity is causing anxiety within the community. As one farmer said yesterday, the vagueness is crippling. Will the Minister create a third pillar of funding specifically for eco-schemes?

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have landed us in a position where we can expect 7% less than in the previous EU budgetary cycle for CAP allocations, despite the fact that farmers are crying out for fairer deals and have a just transition to surmount. Farmers are again being asked to do more to receive less. Sinn Féin is calling for a third pillar of funding solely focused on environmental programmes dedicated to the transition of eco-schemes for small and medium-size farms which need support to navigate a just transition. I support the idea that if the money streamed into Ireland for these schemes goes unspent, it should remain in the country.

Sinn Féin has called for the capping of Pillar 1 payments to €60,000. The fact that there is no cap on these payments, while small and medium-sized farmers struggle to make ends meet is hard to swallow. Many farmers stay afloat because of the single farm payment, not the actual income generated by trading livestock. Last year, just 20 farm enterprises received €3.6 million in direct payments. This is illogical at best and corrupt at worst. One wealthy owner of a buoyant business received €414,000 of EU money that is supposed to be used to strengthen and develop our society as a whole, not the already mega-wealthy. It is an absolute disgrace.

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