Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The point I am making, one which the Minister has not homed in on, is that we need to protect family farm income in the first instance. We also need to provide front-loaded funding to allow farmers to change their work practices to ensure they are doing so in an environmentally-friendly way. Those are two separate matters. The concern farmers have is that the CAP is being taken hostage to pay for the environmental measures and that their family supports will be lost. To take small farms of 50 acres as an example, only one third of these farms are viable. The security of these family farms is in doubt if we do not address this matter in a tangible way. I ask for further engagement with the farming organisations to ensure Pillar 2 of the CAP is administered in a way that makes a difference to farm incomes, rather than just creating consultancy fees.

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