Danny Healy-Rae: Warns CAP Cuts Could Spell Death of Rural Ireland
Danny Healy-Rae spoke about the precarious state of suckler and beef farmers and warned that proposed cuts to agricultural payments risked undermining rural Ireland. He argued EU payments are compensation for underpayment for produce and opposed cuts to pillar one and pillar two supports.
Farmers at a crossroads
He described farmers, especially suckler and beef producers, as being at a crossroads, many losing money and surviving only because of payments from Europe. He insisted those payments are not gifts but compensation for not being paid properly for their food.
Opposition to CAP funding cuts
He criticised talk of a 200 million cut to the cap and a potential 10% drop in pillar one, saying such reductions would "spell the death knell of rural Ireland" and must not be accepted by whoever forms the next government.
Threats to rural development schemes
He warned that pillar two rural development measures - including GLAS, TAMS, ANC and other payments - were facing proposals to be cut by 25%, a change he said would hit poorer rural areas hardest and reduce vital supports for farming communities.
Concerns about eligibility for young and part-time farmers
He called proposals to deny payments to young farmers who do not spend over 50% of their time on the farm "scandalous and ridiculous", stressing many young farmers rely on marginal land and need the option to keep farming and maintain rural life.
Land management and regional impact
He raised objections to proposals that would penalise drainage of carbon-rich soils outside designated areas, arguing farmers must be allowed to improve small holdings to survive. He emphasised that sheep farmers and beef producers in hilly western areas and in Kerry have limited options and cannot absorb cuts to their payments.
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Thank you very much, Ceann Comhairle. I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk about this very important topic here this evening. At the present time, farmers, especially suckler farmers and beef farmers, are at a crossroads. Many of them are not making money, indeed they're losing money. And if it weren't for the payments that they get from Europe, and we must remember that the payments that farmers are getting are not a gift or they're not a present. Indeed they're supposed to be compensation to make up for the fact that they're not being paid properly and it is so that food can be sold cheaper to the consumers of Europe. We must remember that. They're entitled those payments because they're not being paid properly for the food that they produce. And indeed, if they were being paid properly, they would be looking for no payments. Because we must remember these are honest, hardworking people. They're not biggermen, they're not thieves, or they're not robbers of any kind of distinction. They're honest, hardworking people who deserve to be paid properly. And indeed, there has been mentioned that the cap is going to be cut by 200 million. Well, I'm saying to you, whoever is going to be the government, whether it is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the Greens or Sinn Féin, whoever it is going to be, he can't accept that in these negotiations, he can't accept a court like that because that will spell the death knell of rural Ireland. And they're saying that pillar one might drop by 10%. We can't have that. We can't accept that. And if Ireland is going to have to pay more to the fund, surely they should insist that they get more out of the fund. Pillar two, rural development, GLAS, TAMS, ANC, Perlmotional, all those payments, that's supposed to be cut by 25%. If that happens, all those payments will come into the poorer, less deprived areas in rural Ireland. We can't, there's also mentioned that young farmers, if they aren't giving more than 50% of their time on the farm, part-time farmers, that they won't be entitled to payments. That's absolutely scandalous and ridiculous and that can't be allowed to happen because many young farmers can survive on the bitter land that they have, but they want to keep the door open in their farm. They want to keep their roads in such a way that someone is going up and down the roads and that there's life to be seen. We can't, it can't all be just about planting forestry and closing down rural Ireland. We can't, if we're water or salt at all, we can't stand for that. And I'm asking whoever will be the government not to stand for that. Outside of designated areas, there's talk that carbon, outside of these designated areas, that carbon rich soils will be prevented from, that there'll be regulations and stiff penalties applied to them if they do simple things like draining their land to improve it. We can't allow that because the little bits of land that they have, they need to utilise and produce as much as they can out of it for to survive. And also, when we talk about the levelling off of the schemes in relation to payments for sheepmen, especially, and farmers in the west of Ireland, they need to get more attention than the farmers that have all the options in the eastern side of the country. In places like Glincar, or Mangaton in Kilgallen, or wherever it is along the course, where mountainy, hilly land, you have only one option, that's either sheep or socklers and beef. You can't plough, you can't sow grain, you can't milk cows there, they have only one option. And those farmers have to be seen after, and their payments can't be cut. Maybe the bigger fellows in the eastern side of the country can afford it, and maybe Sean Offeril is looking at me, he's a part-time farmer as well. But they can afford, the people in the west of Ireland can't afford any cuts, and especially the people in Kerry who are trying to survive and are not being paid for that produce at the present time. We've raised so much about the socklers, and if they don't get some payment in the very near future, many of them will close down and have to give up because they're not making a profit minister at the present time, Thank you very much. And they can't afford any cuts in their payments. And again I said, it's not a gift they're getting, it's not a present. It is like you get at Christmas. It's compensation for not being paid properly for the food that they produce. You don't have the but the people who just say they produce. They produce!
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