Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed is being called on to “act quickly and decisively” to provide financial support to suckler and sheep farmers.
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) has said that the minister must “leave no stone unturned to find money for our sucker and sheep farmers amid the Covid-19 crisis”.
Colm O’Donnell, the association’s president, pointed out that EU member states have been given “flexibilities and opportunities to make the fullest possible use” of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Our minister and his staff must find every available euro in the whole of the RDP, including unspent allocations on existing schemes, together with amounts reserved for ongoing calls for applications not yet finalised, by extending their scope and re-allocating funds between measures.
“All of the these options now have been given the green light by [European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development] Janusz Wojciechowski, who has pledged the services of the European Commission to grant swift approval of any RDP amendments proposed by members states in response to the coronavirus crisis,” O’Donnell said.
The INHFA president continued: “We have proposed to both Minister Creed and to Commissioner Wojciechowski that the best and most efficient method of delivering support to our primary producers of sucklers and sheep is by allocating an additional €100 million to the 2020 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme.
“This particular Pillar II scheme is designated to compensate farmers for costs incurred, income foregone and extra transaction costs associated with systems such as suckler and sheep,” O’Donnell added.
With the flexibilities now offered by the European Commission, this additional funding could be paid out as an advance ANC payment to help keep cash strapped primary producers’ heads over water for the next couple of months.
Last week, O’Donnell had said that these farmers have “effectively had their ability to carry out their farm businesses sterilised by the restrictions imposed by the Government in Ireland’s battle with Covid-19”.
O’Donnell had also written to Commissioner Wojciechowski, asking him to clarify his recent remarks regarding supports for the farmers across the EU.