Irish farm organisations have met with the top EU bureaucrat for agriculture and outlined their criticisms of the proposals for the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Elizabeth Werner, the head of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), was in Ireland this week for a series of meetings.

Those meetings included farm organisations, among them the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA).

Speaking after the meeting with Werner, IFA deputy president Alice Doyle said the next CAP "has to put active farmers and food production at its core".

"That won’t happen unless there is a CAP budget to at least cover inflation," Doyle said.

The IFA deputy president said that the current proposals for the next CAP post-2027, which would entail a cut of over 20% in dedicated CAP funds, "simply isn’t acceptable".

“It’s evidence of the disconnect between the commission and farmers on the ground. Ireland is particularly disadvantaged with the proposed allocation method. Greater flexibility must be provided given our unique profile and reliance on agriculture,” she said.

“The commission talks of agriculture being a strategically important sector [and] of the need to boost the attractiveness and competitiveness of the sector; and yet it cuts the CAP budget,” Doyle added.

Doyle said that the IFA also called for 'transitionary provisions' to be in place, even if they are not ultimately required, to ensure there are no payment gaps.

Simplification of CAP measures and generational renewal also featured in the IFA's meeting with Werner.

Meeting with ICMSA

The EU official also met with the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA).

Speaking after the meeting, ICMSA president Denis Drennan slammed the proposed CAP budget as "a fairytale".

Drennan said that the first priority for the Irish government "must be to secure an adequate CAP budget", which he said would involve a much more focussed commitment on keeping pace with the actual true cost of farming and primary food production in the EU today.

"We are really at the point where, without an extra allocation of funding, CAP will just become inevitably irrelevant and, so far as the ‘green’ requirements go, those will be the first to be dispensed with and put aside as farmers realise that there isn’t enough to adequately support farm incomes and all the other requirements," he said.

"That’s just the reality of the situation and that’s what we told [Werner]. The current proposed budget is completely inadequate to achieve the stated objectives of CAP. It’s not a real budget, it’s a fairytale," Drennan commented.

"It’s long been obvious that the current CAP has already got too many retrofitted ‘bolt-on’ stipulations and requirements and, as a result, is failing in its primary mandated function of delivering a sustainable income to the farmers producing high quality food," the ICMSA president added.

"This proposed post-2027 budget, set against its targets and ambitions, is not serious planning or administration... It is simply ‘make believe’ economics," Drennan commented.

"The budget is going to have to be adjusted upwards and significantly so," he added.