Councillors voice fears over future of farming in Mayo

Farmers are worried for their future and are afraid that measures around climate change and new European Union regulations will make them redundant, according to a local councillor.

Independent Cllr Patsy O'Brien made the comments at the June meeting of Mayo County Council following a presentation by the council's Climate Action Officer Laura Dixon. He referred in particular to the EU's controversial Nature Restoration Law, which requires EU member states to restore at least 30% of habitats in poor condition by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050.

"That means the rewetting of land," said Cllr O'Brien. "Land production is completely going to be taken out - at scale.

“People in my own lifetime, we were paid to increase production, it was a way of life in the farming community and that is what we enjoyed. Now we are being asked not to produce and are not really being paid. CAP reform is coming in and will end up at payments of €140 to €150 per hectare, so people will have a substantial cut in their income. Nobody in the PAYE system would see such a cut and I don’t know are you taking this into consideration in climate work. It is a whole new ballgame and what is happening is totally against anyone working in farming."

Cllr John O’Malley questioned senior officials about the place of agriculture in the council's overall remit, adding: "I don’t know have you anything to do with rivers at all. You are not cleaning them and letting waters flow, so they are backing up and flooding people’s sheds and septic tanks. I have raised this several times and am still waiting to walk [my local] river with our council engineer to see if they will take this matter on board.

“At the same time, we are being made cut back in agriculture. We have every constraint put on us for putting out slurry. We have fragmented farms here in the West of Ireland and now, to move slurry, we have to notify what day we are going to do it, we get three days to do it and if it rains and we can’t do it, we have to apply to do it again. That is unfair for fragmented farms here and that law should not be for us at all because we have no choice but to go when the weather is fine. With all this pressure coming on us the number of cattle has dropped dramatically and will come down even more."

Cllr O’Malley described the Nature Restoration Bill as "the the wrongest thing".

"I hoped it would be voted down and it almost was. I am totally disappointed with the Fine Gael MEPs because they went against their own grouping, it was an awful mistake that was made and now they know it."

Ms Dixon responded to the points raised, stating: “In relation to farming and future-proofing, we can only work on what is in our direct control. As to the Nature Restoration Bill, that is open currently to public consultation."

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.