Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Agriculture is the backbone of rural Ireland, supporting communities, protecting the environment and ensuring food security. Yet, time and time again, farmers feel abandoned and left to navigate a system that is often unfair, bureaucratic and increasingly unsustainable.

Sinn Féin has a clear ask. We want the Common Agricultural Policy to be fair for all farmers. We believe payments should be fairly distributed. We support the full convergence of entitlements and the ending of the outdated system where payments are based on reference years from decades ago. There should be a cap of €60,000 on upper payments, thereby ensuring that CAP supports are directed towards those who truly need them, not just the large enterprises. Small and medium farms should be protected through front-loaded payments, ensuring they can survive and thrive in the years ahead.

There is no doubt that agriculture plays a role in reducing carbon emissions. Irish farmers have already stepped up by making significant changes to their practices to help Ireland meet its climate targets. They will continue to do more but it will come at a cost. Farmers must be fairly compensated for their work in protecting the environment. Let us be clear. Irish farmers are not the enemy of the environment. They are the custodians of our land, producing the highest quality food to the highest standards. Instead of scapegoating them for Ireland's failure to meet climate targets, we should be working with them, supporting them and ensuring they have the financial backing to continue farming in a sustainable way.

For years, Sinn Féin has been calling for compensation for the forgotten farmers, those who were unfairly excluded from young farmer supports due to Government cutbacks after the last recession. They missed out on installation aid and then, when the new farmer scheme was introduced under CAP 2015, they were locked out because they had been farming for more than five years. The Government has made countless announcements but when it comes to real action, it fails. The €5 million allocated in the budget is simply not enough and, to make matters worse, there is still no clarity on how it will be spent. These farmers have been ignored for too long. We must continue to push for a proper, meaningful compensation package that reflects the losses they have endured.

Sinn Féin has consistently opposed the Mercosur trade deal and we will continue to do so. The deal is a direct threat to Irish beef farmers. Ireland produces some of the best beef in the world and is held to the highest environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards, yet the Government is willing to allow cheaper, lower standard beef from South America onto our market, thereby forcing Irish farmers to compete on an unfair playing field. The Government says it opposes Mercosur in its current form. However, to be real, there is no version of Mercosur that is going to be good for Irish farmers so we need to reject it outright.

One of the biggest frustrations farmers face is the complexity of the CAP schemes. Time and again, we see schemes introduced that are overly complicated, poorly communicated and riddled with delays. When farmers sign up to schemes, they believe they will receive a certain level of support only to find out a year or two later that the payments are far lower than expected. ACRES participants are still waiting on payments due since 2023 because of a lack of staffing in the Department, which cannot get the payments out. The lack of proper engagement with farm organisations means the schemes are designed without farmers in mind. We call for a simplification of the agri-schemes so farmers get the payments they are entitled to on time and without unnecessary bureaucracy. The Department of agriculture needs to work with farmers, not against them, to ensure the schemes are practical, transparent and effective.

In conclusion, we are looking for a CAP that is fair to all farmers, a CAP that protects the family farm and full convergence of entitlements. We need the front-loading of payments for small and medium family farms, a fair stance against unfair trade deals like Mercosur, and simpler and fairer agriculture schemes with no payment delays. Farmers in my constituency in County Limerick have shared their frustrations with me about the delays in ACRES payments, the complexity of TAMS applications and the uncertainty of CAP entitlements. These are the real, everyday issues affecting real farmers and the Government cannot continue to ignore them. I believe there needs to be a fairer, more sustainable future for Irish farming. CAP must work for all farmers, not just for the top.