A candidate for the Ireland Midlands–North-West constituency in the European Parliament elections in June has said that he would look to “expand on the front-loading system” if successfully elected as an MEP.
James Reynolds, the leader of the National Party, said that he wanted to see the expansion of front loading achieved as part of an overall increase to the CAP budget.
Front loading refers to the system of increasing payment rates under CAP Pillar I (direct supports) for a certain number of hectares, with payment rates falling back to a standard figure on hectares above that, thus providing higher funding to smaller farmers than they would otherwise get.
In Ireland under the current CAP, this is done through the Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).
Reynolds is a suckler and sheep farmer from Co. Longford, and was the chairperson of the Longford executive of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA). He later joined the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), becoming its national treasurer.
Speaking to Agriland, the candidate said that, if elected to one of Ireland’s MEP seats, he would challenge the EU’s climate action policies around farming.
“I want to draw attention to the EU Green Deal. I want to draw attention to the carbon emissions cut of 25% (in agriculture) by 2030, and trying to scapegoat agriculture for causing climate change.”
Reynolds drew attention to the apparent inconsistency between climate action policies in the agriculture sector, and policy in other areas, citing the construction of data centres and the Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA’s) efforts to increase its passenger cap.
He also claimed that “effective, proper supports” were being “withdrawn” from the suckler sector in the current CAP, referring to the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) as a “mess”.
Reynolds went on to express “total opposition” to the Nature Restoration Law, calling it “an assault on rural Ireland and an assault on the farming sector”. He also criticised Fine Gael’s MEPs for voting in favour of the law when it came up in the European Parliament in February.
“You have a situation where you have five Fine Gael MEPs, who are part of the European People’s Party (EPP) voting against their own party (the EPP) in the European Parliament…in faovur of the Nature Restoration Law.”
He said that, if elected, he would “be seeking to support the CAP between now and 2027 to expand on the front-loading system, and to actually increase the CAP budget”.
“I want that increased and I want proper support for Irish agriculture and European agriculture, and for that money to be properly targeted,” the National Party leader said.
Reynolds also said he would seek a review of the current reference years upon which CAP entitlements are based, which are still 2000-2002.
“I want to change the reference years. Nobody talks about that. The reference years for the new BISS (Basic Income Support for Sustainability) are still the reference years 2000, 2001 and 2002.”
“I would advocate for the reference years to be updated and, in that way, ensure a fairer distribution and a fairer system in relation to the payments per farmers,” he said.
Commenting on his past life in farm politics, and his views on the effectiveness of lobbying by farm organisations, Reynolds said: “The politics of farm lobbying is stale.
“Lobbying the political parties, the main parties, hasn’t resulted in an improved deal for Irish agriculture for the farmers that the farmer organisations purport to represent, and I think at this stage farmers have to get involved in the political system themselves to try and change it. That’s what my candidacy is about,” the MEP candidate added.