An overwhelming majority of Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) members support 100 per cent convergence of direct payments under Ireland’s next CAP.
The farm organisation asked it members for their views following the new CAP for 2023 to 2027, which calls for 100 per 100 per cent convergence of farm payments towards the national average of €265/ha.
Results of the IBLA survey found that almost 82 per cent of members support full convergence with only 5 per cent in favour of 85 per cent convergence – the current agreed minimum level.
IBLA’s Eoin Donnelly said: “The IBLA recognises the challenge ahead for Minister McConalogue in finding a position that suits all the dominant farm organisations, who are also divided on the distribution of CAP funding and cannot claim to represent all the views of the membership associated to each organisation, such is the division expressed by their members.
“No longer can the chosen few in our society be protected at the cost of the many small family farms throughout Ireland.
“The Central Statistics Office has vast capabilities to print and deliver a referendum to every herd number on this island and the CSO can also correlate these results to obtain the will of Irish farmers on how they see the best and fairest distribution of CAP funding and in that process, define what the best result for them from the current CAP process can be.”
LSL News.