Targeted Aid Inadequate to Deal with Farm Income Difficulties

IFA President Eddie Downey has said that Ireland’s share of the €420m targeted aid from the EU’s €500m support package announced last week, at €13.7m while welcome, is totally inadequate to deal with the income difficulties on farms at this time.

Eddie Downey said that farmers would expect Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to mirror the decisions of other countries on top ups from national funds, which the EU Commission package explicitly allows, to ensure Irish farmers are not at a competitive disadvantage.

“To affect real and lasting change, the Minister and the EU Commission must now move to ban below cost selling at retailer level and take decisive action to break the global input supplier cartels which are becoming ever more apparent,” Mr Downey said.

“The Minister must come forward in the upcoming Budget with a package of measures from national level that ensures full funding for the farm schemes and new taxation measures to address farm structural and income volatility issues as identified in the IFA’s pre-Budget submission,” he concluded.