Farmers and farming groups have protested outside the European Commission’s office in Dublin over proposals to remove the CAP budget.
The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are a crucial source of income for thousands of small farmers in Ireland. However, plans have been put forward to remove the CAP budget and replace it with a once-off funding approach to the EU budget.
The national organisation representing farmers, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) and the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society (ICOS) were behind the “flash action” at the EU Commission offices this afternoon, warning the Commission against stripping away the CAP budget in favour of a single fund approach to the EU budget under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Protesting farmers say they want to see the retention and enlargement of the EU CAP budget and reject the EU Commission’s proposal for a Single Fund model.
Farmers from across the country were represented, including those from Roscommon, Wexford, Kilkenny, Mayo, Laois, and Wicklow.
The event coincided with flash action organised by COPA COGECA in Brussels to highlight the importance of the CAP budget. Similar protests took place in other EU countries at the same time this afternoon. Protesters in central Dublin held signs reading “The EU house of cards”
It comes as the EU Commission is currently holding a budget conference in Brussels.
IFA President Francie Gorman, who attended the flash action in Brussels in his capacity as Vice-President of COPA, said ahead of the event that it was vital that “a strong message is sent to the EU Commission that the funding model and structure of the CAP is critical for the development of the farming and food sector in Ireland.”
“Everybody is aware that the geopolitical landscape is changing, but food security has to remain at the core of what the Commission does,” he said.
“All the signs are that the Commission is still hell bent on a single fund structure which, if approved, would be the beginning of the end of CAP as we know it. This approach will undermine the security CAP brings to millions of farm families around Europe.”
The IFA Deputy President Alice Doyle and the ICOS President Edward Carr led the action in Dublin. Mr Carr said that CAP is the foundation of a sustainable and competitive farming and agri-food sector in Ireland and Europe – playing a vital role in maintaining farm incomes, supporting rural communities and driving progress on climate and environmental goals across the EU.
“What we need is a strong, practical and properly and fully resourced CAP; one that cuts red tape and empowers farmers to focus on producing food not paperwork. Farming in Ireland and across the EU is struggling to attract young farmers. The Commission must not risk accelerating the generational renewal crisis. Rather than potentially seeking mechanisms to undermine and defund CAP, the European Commission must stand by its farming citizens, underpin food security and protect this essential policy,” he said ahead of the protest on Mount Street, Dublin 2.
Ms Doyle, speaking as Irish Farmers’ Association deputy president, said that the organisation had been warning against the consequences of the changes to the CAP budget. She highlighted how the Cap budget has been in place since the 1950s, having been put in place to ensure that we would have food security across Europe, something she said remains “paramount.”
“We are producing the best food in the world, in Ireland and across Europe,” she added.
Last week, rural TD Carol Nolan told the Oireachtas that Brussels was “far removed from the reality of farm life” in Ireland, after the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association’s (ICMSA) hit out at new CAP simplification measures as “unconvincing.”
“Minister, you may have seen recent polling on Irish people’s views on the EU, and certainly it’s at historically low levels. I believe that this is due in no small part to what is now almost a cliche, and that is the bureaucratic stranglehold that Brussels has on every single aspect of our lives, particularly agriculture. There is a level of intrusion, and often just plain stupidity, that is simply eye-watering,” she said.