The priority for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine this week must be to get “money into the pockets of sheep farmers” to help them pay their bills and keep going, according to a leading sector representative.
Kevin Comiskey, whose farm operates both suckler and sheep systems, said it is a critical time for farmers because of crippling input costs.
Comiskey, who is the chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Sheep Committee said the sheep sector is a “low income sector that can no longer absorb high input costs”.
He said:
“The sheep sector urgently needs support. The time for talking is over. We need to hear from the minister what he is going to do, he has provided support to other sectors and we welcome that.
“But this sector is not the poor relation, we need the same level of support that the minister is prepared to give for example to the sucker sector and it should be his priority to get money into the pockets of sheep farmers as soon as possible – there shouldn’t be a delay,” Comiskey said.
Farmers in crisis
According to Comiskey Minister McConalogue has had “more than enough time” to make his mind up on how he plans to support farmers in crisis.
Last week the minister acknowledged that there is a “real challenge in the sheep sector at the moment” but he did not confirm if there will be an immediate rescue package for the sheep sector.
The minister told Agriland that he had “his budget for the year” but that he had “tasked” his officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) to “assess what capacity he might have to do extra for the sheep sector”.
He said that he had not ruled out seeking funding from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) to support the sector but he said that in relation to the BAR there was a “very specific qualification criteria for it”.
But according to Comiskey it is time for Minister McConalogue to detail what proposals he may have come up with for the sector.
“We believe that there is money available under BAR because the sheep sector has been impacted by Brexit – there is no question about that.
“But it doesn’t matter whether it is BAR or Exchequer funding – what matters is that the sector gets financial support from the government and it gets it quickly,”
“This sector is in crisis what sheep farmers need is immediate direct support,” he said.
Comiskey said that farmers need €30/ewe to survive and that store lamb finishers must also “be directly supported”.