Clear commitments have apparently been given from the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the leader of Fianna Fail Micheál Martin that there will be no cuts to the suckler cow herd – with an increase in direct payments on the cards for sucklers in the next Government.

The political party leaders were questioned on their agriculture policies at the recent Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) annual general meeting (AGM) in Bluebell, Dublin 12, earlier this week.

According to the IFA, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was “strong on Brexit saying there can be no tariffs, no taxes and no quotas in any EU deal with the UK”.

The Taoiseach gave a full endorsement to the live export trade and said he would maximise the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget from the EU and top it up, if necessary, with national funding, according to IFA National Livestock Committee chairman Brendan Golden.

On suckler supports, the Fine Gael leader there will be a new Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) scheme in 2020, with double the funding to €40 million.

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin committed to new additional payments of €200/head on the first 20 suckler cows.

Golden added that Martin made it clear this would be on top of the existing Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) payment of €95/80 per cow and BEEP payments of €40/cow.

The Fianna Fáil leader said he was committed to negotiating a higher CAP budget in Brussels.

On Brexit, the Fianna Fáil leader said the UK/EU deal must involve zero tariffs and zero quotas, according to the IFA chairman.

“He added that he would negotiate a Beef Emergency Aid Measure (BEAM) II scheme and pay out the €25 million underspend in the BEAM I to farmers. He was fully supportive of live exports,” Golden said.