Flexibility for Ireland to design its own Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plan is key to ensuring that CAP works for Irish farmers, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said.
Speaking to the Dáil today (Wednesday, June 16) about CAP and the stance he has taken in Europe on the matter, Minister McConalogue said:
“I have always been clear that I am seeking as much flexibility as possible in the final outcome.
“We need a CAP that will work for Ireland, our farmers and our wider sector. Some in the Dáil here support the position that Europe should be setting the CAP path for Ireland – I entirely reject this approach as it does support our farmers.
“What works in Malta will not work in Maam Cross and what works in Croatia will not work in Carndonagh. We cannot ignore this fact,” the minister said.
“Supporting the stance of wanting Europe to arbitrarily set the standards in which our farmers should farm is not one that will suit us best and I cannot understand why Sinn Féin is supporting this.
“When the final parameters of the regulations are agreed we will then have certainty regarding our options and I, as Minister, will engage closely with farmers and their organisations.
“The reality is that the next CAP will have to strike a balanced outcome – and this will be no easy task.”
Highlighting that this point “can sometimes be overlooked” when people focus on a particular aspect of the CAP on its own, the minister noted that there are nine separate objectives for the next CAP with a tenth overarching one of agricultural knowledge and information systems.
Consequently, he stressed that this cannot be a single issue, single focus, new CAP for Ireland.
“It will be a balancing act of different interests and also some conflicting demands.
“However, we have to reach a balance that recognises the need to successfully manage the many demands on the CAP: the production of safe quality food; support for farmers’ livelihoods and rural communities; and, the maintenance of sustainability throughout all of these choices.
“I want to assure everyone today that at the heart of that consideration will be Irish farmers and Irish farm families.”
Providing an update at the “final stage of negotiations”, Minister McConalogue noted that the key issues that remain to be resolved include: the amount of expenditure allocated to environmental actions; the level of the baseline conditionality all farmers must comply with to receive any payments; and the level and extent of redistribution.
“When we know what the parameters of redistribution are in the final regulations, we will have to undertake further modelling to ascertain the best choices for Ireland.
“The current system for payments has been in place for some time and if you make changes to a long-standing system, it is inevitable that there will be challenging choices to make. However, that is why I remain focused on obtaining the most national flexibility we can achieve.”
Underlining Irish agriculture’s credentials, the minister said:
“Ireland is the sustainable food capital of the world – and we must not do anything that would stop our farmers from doing what they do best.
“As a country that is one of the most food secure nations in the world exporting 90% of all food produced, Ireland is not exporting a problem. We are exporting a solution of sustainable food production to more than 180 countries.”
The minister noted that proposals for the next Common Agricultural Policy were put forward by the European Commission in June 2018 with an increased focus on higher environmental and climate ambition,
However, he stressed that Ireland and Irish farmers “should not be phased by this ambition as we have led the way in our climate ambitions”.
“In the last CAP programme, Ireland was second only to Finland in our environmental spend under Pillar II – ahead of countries like France, Germany, Austria and Denmark.
“An overall target of 40% of the total CAP budget will be allocated to environmental actions. The proposals also included further targeting of direct payments with proposals for capping and redistribution measures and further internal convergence,” he concluded.