IFA calls for suckler target payment
The call is in response to its latest report into the Irish suckler beef industry, which provided an assessment on the current status of the sector and its importance in terms of economic and non-economic outputs and inputs.
The IFA provided 12 key findings from the report, but addressed the demand for a targeted payment for suckler cows as a “key priority” in its pre-Budget submissions.
IFA president Joe Healy urged the Irish agriculture minister Michael Creed to deliver this priority in the forthcoming budget.
“Minister Creed must front up and beat down the door of Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to ensure that additional support for the suckler cow is delivered in the October Budget,” said Healy.
Meanwhile, IFA’s national livestock chairman Angus Woods backed Healy’s call to Minister Creed and said he must respond positively and that there had been a majority backing in the Irish parliament (Dáil) for this support earlier this year.
“The IFA’s proposal to Government is for a targeted payment of €200 per suckler cow, structured under environmental and animal welfare measures in the CAP Rural Development Programme and financed predominantly from national resources and savings from the existing RDP schemes,” said Woods.
“This would have no impact on the Basic Payment to farmers under CAP Pillar I.”
As part of the IFA report, farmers and IFA officers in all counties will undertake a local lobby, as well as a national lobby in Dublin, of politicians over the next number of weeks leading up to the Budget on 9 October.
