Hill farmer picket at Enda’s office to continue

DISGRUNTLED western hill farmers have this week staged a picket at the Castlebar Office of Taoiseach Enda Kenny ‘for as long as it takes’ to bring about changes to the new CAP proposals that are due to click in over the coming months.

At the heart of the controversy for the hill farmers is the stipulation that there must be a 50% agreement level among active commonage farmers for inclusion in the new GLAS environmental scheme.

Connemara IFA Regional Chairman, Brendan Joyce, told the Farming Tribune that the picket on the Taoiseach’s Castlebar Office would continue until basic and reasonable demands put forward by the hill farmers were met.

He also stressed that the ‘sticking points’ for hill farmers were not just in relation to the GLAS scheme saying that they also had implication for the Single Farm Payment.

“We had 1,700 farmers turning out for a meeting in Westport last month and this shows the importance, and the depth of feeling, that’s out there on these issues.

“In terms of the Commonage Framework Plan we have no problem in putting certain measures in place but these must be done over the course of the GLAS plan, but they mustn’t be used to prevent people getting into GLAS in the first place,” said Brendan Joyce.

He said that even from a practical point of view there just wouldn’t be enough planners to deal with the level of applications from the hill/commonage farmers to get into the GLAS scheme.

“This 50% collective agreement clause is not being sought by Europe and is something brought in by the Minister that can be removed. Farmers who want to get into the GLAS scheme cannot be held back by such a measure,” said Brendan Joyce.

Hill farmers also want the minimum/maximum stocking requirements to be addressed with a minimum stocking rate of 0.05 livestock units per hectare put in place – this equates to one ewe per three hectares of land.

Over recent weeks the hill/commonage issue has led to a major rift developing between the hill farmers and the senior IFA hierarchy.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.