Farmers will “look in vain to Budget 2022 for any signal” that government understands the “scale of the challenge that it is putting before the state’s farm families”.
President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) Pat McCormack said that this budget was “yet again a gross mismatch between the ambitions that ministers had repeatedly proclaimed for the farming and agri-food sector”.
Budget 2022 another budget come and gone
“We keep hearing that we’re a critical sector in terms of emissions lowering and we keep saying that we can and will get on board with the project so long as rural Ireland’s economic sustainability is given the same consideration as environmental sustainability,” McCormack said.
“Everybody keeps agreeing with that – certainly the government do – but only until it comes time to actually do something meaningful and invest towards that end.
“Then, suddenly, it all goes quiet. That’s what happens every year and that’s what happened today.”
McCormack referred to today’s announcement of an extension to the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme for gas vehicles, saying that the ICMSA has been calling for Accelerated Capital Allowances “for lower emissions farm equipment like slurry spreaders for at least five years”.
“But yet again, a budget has come and gone and a measure that would have cost practically nothing while having a real impact on lowering emissions has not been introduced,” McCormack said.
Rising input costs
He added that today’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) publication on agricultural input and output prices “laid bare the real picture on farm incomes”.
“Whatever benefit farmers have enjoyed from the last 18 months of income stability and reasonable prices has been wiped out by input surges as we see the prices of fertiliser, fuel and energy soar,” he said.
“That has gone completely unaddressed. The government appears intent on detaching itself from the agri sector and [it is] making a huge mistake in so doing.
“Budget 2022 demonstrates categorically that complacency and flawed analysis: this was a huge chance to show that [it] understands the positive role that farming and agri-food can and wants to play as we go forward.
“Instead they have come up with a budget that falls short of both the challenge and the opportunity.”