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There is a growing perception among farmers that the status of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, is now little more than that of “a unit within the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications” according to Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan.
Deputy Nolan also stated that it was increasingly difficult to argue against this perception given that there was not a single reference to agriculture, farming or rural Ireland in either the General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund or the Regulatory Impact Analysis of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, both of which have been published by Government and featured prominently in Budget 2024:
“Immediately following the Budget last week, I made the initial observation that it had managed to reinforce a view of Irish farming as being little more than a subset of climate action measures. Nothing that has taken place since then has caused me to alter that view,” said Deputy Nolan.
“This is a view that is increasingly shared by the very many farmers who are coming to my office in genuine bewilderment at what they perceive as a major downgrading in status for Irish agriculture.”
“Almost every single policy approach to agriculture is being filtered through the prism of climate action and environmental measures, which would not be such a problem if the level of climate and environmental ambition was not seriously and increasingly detached from the practical realities of what it takes to make a farm operational.”
“We saw that very clearly with the nitrates decision and we see it again and again with the complex web of stringent conditions that are being attached to farm payments.”
“We also see indications of it with respect to the consultation on private wires from the Department of the Environment, although this has not received half the attention that it merits in terms of the threat that it poses to the ability of farmers to retain their land in what is an increasingly aggressive approach to compulsory purchase orders.”
“We have to reassert the core centrality of Irish agricultural policy and to stop this slide into irrelevance when it comes to protecting agricultural practices and supports that are vitally necessary for the future of the sector and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that reply on it,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
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