Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has called for the government to give an “absolute commitment” that revenue generated from increases to the Carbon Tax will be used for a “proper environmental scheme”.
Speaking to Agriland at the association’s pre-Budget 2022 lobby day for TDs in Dublin today (Wednesday, September 22), Cullinan outlined his and the IFA’s top priorities for the coming national budget.
These include taxation measures and reliefs for farmers and adequate funding for farm schemes, particularly the flagship Agri-Environment and Climate Measure (AECM).
“Our priorities are very clear. We have taxation measures. The 90% write down on Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) is very, very important for generational renewal and bringing young people into farming.”
The IFA president also called for government funding for farm schemes next year – part of a transition period to bridge the gap between now and the start of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027 – to be sufficient to meet the demands of those schemes.
“On the schemes, it was agreed that there will be a transition of two years during the renegotiations of CAP. That has happened; we got a roll-over of the schemes last year and had adequate funding for those schemes,” Cullinan said.
“It’s absolutely essential that we have adequate funding now for the schemes for 2022,” he insisted.
In terms of specific farm payments, Cullinan specifically referenced payments for sucklers.
“We are looking at some of the schemes [and] we would like to see an increase around the sucklers, bringing us on to where we need to go to for 2023-2027, up to €300/cow,” he said.
He added: “My key priorities are around the schemes, adequate funding and key taxation measures; also, setting the groundwork now for the funding in 2023-2027 is absolutely essential.”
Part of that, Cullinan argued, is “the absolute commitment from government on the Carbon Tax money, the €1.5 billion”.
When the Programme for Government was agreed in the summer of 2020, it included a provision that around €1.5 billion in revenue from the Carbon Tax would be put towards other climate change mitigation measures, including what was then referred to as a ‘flagship environmental scheme’ and is now referred to as an ‘Agri-Environment and Climate Measure’ in the government’s draft CAP Strategic Plan.
“What we want here is a proper environmental scheme, not what we saw in the REAP [Results-based Environmental Agri Pilot Project] scheme earlier on this year, which is totally unworkable,” Cullinan argued.
On the various climate measures and restrictions coming down the line for farmers, particularly proposed changes to the Nitrates Action Programme (NAP), the IFA president said: “There’s a lot happening here with climate change, funding around that, and nitrates.”
He called for the government to engage appropriately with farmers on these issues.
“We need proper negotiations with our government around the table. The government needs to step up to the plate around all of this,” Cullinan concluded.