Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Francie Gorman, president of the IFA. I had a recent meeting with Kevin Sweeney, the local chair, and a number of other IFA members. They are better than most groups at keeping your feet to the fire in respect of the issues. I thank them for that. Luckily for me, they were just back from meetings in Brussels.

We are all aware that the idea of CAP is to ensure a stable supply of affordable food and that farmers can make a reasonable living. The Minister and I have spoken many times about that. It is also about maintaining a sustainable living for family-run farms, which are an integral part of rural Ireland. Their big fear is the loss of Pillar 2 funding. A serious amount of this possible future loss could be due to geopolitical changes and a rearmed Europe. They said that as much as we needed the Government to ensure it fought the good fight on protecting CAP, we also needed to make sure that, if there were necessary mitigations, the Government would be on hand. We know how important CAP is from the point of view of sustainability.

They also spoke of their fear that there would be an element of quid pro quoas regards Mercosur. Both from a farming and a climate change point of view, no one can understand it. It is something that we must remain secure on. There is not much point in us maintaining impressive conditions and quality with our own beef and then taking in Brazilian beef that is not governed by the same set of rules. All of this needs to be dealt with.

Farmers also spoke of other issues and it will not be a shock to hear that maintenance of the derogation was a big one. They also had particular issues with water quality and the fact that Irish Water needs to get its act together in relation to its capacity goes without saying. They spoke about the TAMS grant, with 60% to be put in place to assist farmers with the provision of extra slurry storage. However, the grant was promised with a planning exemption but this was not put in place. Their fear was that the grant scheme would run out before the planning exemptions were in place. They also spoke about the fact there should be a facility under grant schemes such as TAMS to have a shed of the same size allowed for. There was also a wider discussion on the planning exemptions needed and the requirement for a fit-for-purpose system to deal with anomalies and legacy issues relating to sheds and farmyards. Sometimes when people have tried to engage with the planning system from the point of view of retention, they have ended up with huge bills. We have all had dealings with such people and have tried to mitigate some of these issues but this is not the way things should be. This all needs to work a lot better.

The Minister mentioned streamlining systems in the context of CAP. Farmers have said that they are fed up with the fact that they are applying for multiple schemes and are giving the same information to multiple entities at different times and on different systems. If at all possible, they would like to see a one-size-fits-all system. The idea they spoke about was that when a farmer applies for CAP, he or she could apply for a number of the other schemes at the same time. If this could be facilitated in some way, it would make life a lot easier. It would also mean trying to get our timelines together. I know it will not be possible in all scenarios but there is definitely scope to do all of this a lot better.

Some of my colleagues have spoken about the ACRE scheme. The fact that there are still 10,000 farmers awaiting payment is a particular issue that needs order brought to it. That feeds into the wider issue which is that we have to get better in the application and IT processes and the work that needs to be done on due diligence. We probably have a better relationship and a better level of engagement with Departments and other agencies than with farmers. That has been a constant complaint for long time.

We know why CAP is here and understand its absolute necessity. It is absolutely vital from the point of view of maintaining family farms. What we must do, first and foremost, is protect it. Beyond that, we need to simplify it and many of the other grant schemes because we need to ensure we have a sustainable system of family farms in Ireland. Anything else is not acceptable. Unfortunately, we have all heard the complaints from farmers that they feel they are doing a lot more for a lot less. We have to bridge that gap and make it a lot easier for them.

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