AT THE 57th annual general meeting of the Irish Farmers’ Association in the RDS in Dublin recently, IFA president John Bryan said a successful outcome to the negotiations for the CAP post-2013 was vital to achieve the planned growth in the Irish agriculture and food sector, which is crucial to our economic recovery.
“The improvement in farm incomes in 2011 will underpin economic activity in rural Ireland and provide the confidence for farmers to invest in growing their businesses.
However, even in a positive year, over 70% of farm income was made up of EU and national supports, and any reduction would have a very negative impact on incomes and investment decisions at farm level,” Mr Bryan said.
In welcoming the EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos to Ireland specially for the IFA’s annual meeting, John Bryan said 400 IFA officers from around the country would make him aware of the difficulties around some of his proposals.
“Commissioner Ciolos will be in no doubt that there are aspects of his proposals that will not work for Ireland, and must be changed,” he said.