IFA Hosts National Lobby Event on CAP

Members of IFA’s National Council and the IFA Rural Development Committee met TDs and Senators in Buswells Hotel, Dublin, last week as part of our Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) campaign.

This National Lobby Day was the next phase in IFA’s campaign fighting for improved CAP funding.

The EU Council, made up of Prime Ministers across the EU27, will meet in Dublin next month. The meeting will be chaired by An Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

IFA President Francie Gorman said Ireland currently holds the EU Presidency.

“The Irish Government has characterised their role in the budget talks as being an ‘honest broker, but we also need them fighting for a strong CAP budget for Irish and European farmers,” he said.

“We drove this message home to all TDs and Senators last week,” he said.

IFA signed the CAP Stockholm Declaration in Sweden recently along with other farm leaders from across the EU27. It calls for a CAP budget maintained at least at its current level and adjusted for inflation, with genuinely ring-fenced funding.

The CAP must remain a truly ‘Common’ policy, with its own dedicated and protected budget, if Europe is serious about safeguarding its farming sector and its single market.

 Francie Gorman said the proposal is to allocate €293bn to the EU CAP budget. EU farmers need €500bn to build on-farm resilience, to encourage young people into our sector, to ensure food security and to enhance the sustainability of a very fragile sector.

“Wherever you farm across the EU, the message is the same: the CAP budget has to be resolved. As things stand, Ireland stands to lose over €2.5bn from our CAP budget, which would mean a cut of 24%,” he said.