Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to the last Deputy, I know she is very passionate about these issues but it is important this House reminds itself that Irish and EU farmers adhere to the highest and strictest animal welfare and environmental water quality standards of any farmers anywhere in the world. That is not say that in all of those areas we do not need to go further but we must recognise that when we talk about our farming community, we are talking about working class low-paid workers.

In fact, there is nobody who gets paid less per hour than the average Irish farmer. I would contend that the parties of the left need to work with farmers to address all of the many issues in which respect which we depend on farmers. We often forget that the network of farming families across this island provide us with a number of services and, crucially, with the food we eat. That is what CAP is. It is a payment to our farmers for the services they provide. The crucial and pivotal problem that we, our farming communities, our rural communities and the towns and villages that depend on farmers have faced is that farmers are getting paid less for the service they provide while at the same time being asked to do more across a raft of areas.

In 1973, the CAP comprised 73% of the European budget. By 2017, it had fallen to just 37%. In the most recent multi-annual budget, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael negotiated a further reduction to 30%. This is an unforgivable act, especially given that Ireland was operating as a net contributor and the CAP was a pivotal programme. To make matters worse, the Government tried to play a three-card trick and is still doing so. It is trying to claim that there is more money in CAP than there was previously. When speaking to any farmer, he or she will say that is absolutely not the case.

Through carbon taxes and other measures, the Government has been robbing farmers and pretending that some of that money will be reinvested. We have a system where those schemes that are important, are environmentally beneficial and assist farmers in making the transitions required and that everybody accepts are required are being rolled back, becoming more difficult and bureaucratic to draw down or, worse still, are unpaid despite commitments to the contrary.

If we want to address the myriad of issues facing our farming families and all of the other societal challenges we must face, we need a fair CAP and to ensure farmers get fair pay for their product and that there is fair play in the overall agrifood system.

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