Suckler cap has to go in new plan

A LEADING West of Ireland IFA representative has called on the Minister for Agriculture and his Department to move away from ‘pretend negotiations and pre-loaded questions’ if progress is to be made with the new CAP proposals.

Connacht IFA Chairman, Pat Murphy, called on Minister Charlie McConalogue, to get on top of the CAP situation by listening to farmers’ views on the ground rather than sticking to any pre-arranged agendas.

“A case in point relates to the proposal on suckler cows which wants to put in place a cap on the cow numbers based on a given reference year.

“There’s no way that suckler cow numbers are going to shoot up dramatically in Ireland over the coming years – suckler cow farming is most definitely not the problem in relation to environmental proposals.

“But over the coming years, there may well be young farmers interested in getting into sucklers or there may be farmers whose suckler numbers could have fallen due to disease or health issues – the door must be left open for them,” Pat Murphy told the Farming Tribune.

He said that the whole thrust of the policy should be to support suckler farmers who were the backbone of Ireland’s multi-billion euro meat industry.

“The suckler cow cap must go – it just seems to be some kind of ‘show gesture’ for Europe – but as well as being meaningless it has the potential to do real harm to this sector of farming.

“We also want real commitments as regards Pillar 2 payments with the State’s contribution rising from 47% to 57% to include the introduction of a meaningful suckler cow scheme (€300 per cow).

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.