Wake up and smell the coffee

I don’t need a crystal ball to see that the Irish economy is flying. The Government estimates a surplus of over €16bn in 2024 – this having doubled since 2022. This is good news, particularly for the EU, as Ireland’s increased contributions boost the EU coffers and are graciously dispersed between the Member States.

Reduction in CAP payments

However, my crystal ball is quite misty regarding Ireland’s agricultural future. The climate army blaming agriculture for causing the world’s climate crisis is gathering pace; but they are, no doubt, happy to eat cheap, imported produce from countries where environmental standards are not comparable to our own. That said, through the mist I see a continued reduction in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments. In the 1980s, CAP expenditure amounted to almost 70 per cent of the total income of the EU, today it has dropped to approximately 32 per cent – a massive decrease of 46 per cent. It is, generally, believed that bigger farms throughout the EU benefit more than the smaller farms like those we find in Ireland. Going forward, will EU policy continue to support large-scale farms at the expense of smaller holdings?

Long-term consequences

I ask myself what is going on? Why such secrecy about the future planned for Ireland and other small farming countries. At present Enterprise Ireland tells us we are the fifth-largest beef exporter and the biggest exporter of beef to Europe, standing at €2.5 billion and increasing annually. As Europe turns our farmers towards environmental sustainability, there is pressure on us to considerably reduce our national herd. But they do not appear to consider the long-term effects of this on Irish farms and we have not been given a plan on how Ireland’s traditional farming will be replaced. Europe is no longer self-sustainable for food and has openly declared a policy of sourcing produce from outside the EU. This puts it in a very vulnerable position. The war in Ukraine has affected the fuel supply we require for our energy requirements and we are now scrambling to find alternative forms of European-produced energy.
Farmers, agricultural contractors, politicians and farming organisations need to wake up and smell the coffee and start looking beyond the day-to-day issues and look at the long-term consequences of CAP’s dramatic payment reductions.