Connemara farmers take protest to Dáil

CONNEMARA hill and commonage farmers this week secured a joint meeting with Ministers Simon Coveney and Jimmy Deenihan, over financial losses they could suffer this year in the ‘gap period’ before the new CAP begins next year.

Eight IFA representatives from the Connemara, Mayo and Sligo regions refused to leave the offices of Minister Deenihan on Tuesday until they got a commitment for such a meeting.

Commonage farmers are angry that a new stipulation is proposed to be included for the new GLÁS environmental scheme for new applicants.

According to a spokesman for Connemara IFA, a requirement that 80% of share holders in a commonage have to sign up to a plan for inclusion in AEOS needed to be withdrawn.

He said that if seven out of ten people involved in a commonage wanted to sign up to the GLÁS scheme, while three more refused to co-operate, then the majority couldn’t go ahead and sign up to the scheme.

“This is just a completely unfair condition for those in a commonage who want to be part of a GLÁS scheme – we want this withdrawn as a matter of urgency before the final plans go to Europe,” said the Connemara IFA spokesman.

He said that they also wanted the Duchás environmental scheme carried over for this year, to fill the gap between 2013 and the new CAP next year.

A meeting took place last evening (Wednesday) between the IFA Hill/Commonage representatives and the two Ministers. (See next week’s Farming Tribune for details).

This morning, close on 200 hill farmers from the West are travelling up to Dublin, to protest outside the offices of Ministers Deenihan and Coveney.

Connemara IFA Regional Chairman, Brendan Joyce, said that hill and commonage farmers were completely frustrated at the lack of response from the two ministers over issues that had major consequences for farmers in the region.

Meanwhile farmer anger also boiled over outside Minister Coveney’s office in Dublin over what they is his ‘sleepwalking’ role in the ongoing beef crisis.

The IFA say that Minister Coveney has been completely inactive in terms of tackling the price of beef paid by the meat plant barons. Yesterday, Minister Coveney said that the Department was examining the possibility of legislating for the recognition of producer organisations in the beef sector, and will shortly be launching a consultation with key stakeholder groups in this regard.

“This initiative could provide a vehicle for collective action by farmers in a way that can give them the advantages of scale and market presence, as well as a useful vehicle for transferring technology and expertise to improve profitability at farm level,” said Minister Coveney.