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GRANTS AND SUPPORTS for Irish farmers will total €4 billion over the next six years.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney has announced details of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-2020 which he says demonstrates a “commitment to a strategic investment in rural Ireland”.
The RDP is backed by the EU and the plan for Ireland’s allocation will now be submitted to the European Commission for approval.
Environmentally friendly farmers are entitled to grants of up to €7,000 per year under the Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) and a top-up for farmers who take on particularly challenging actions. The budget fot theses programmes are €1.45 billion over the six years.
There are also additional supports for farmers who work in difficult areas and a specific grant for farmers based on an island.
Others details of the six-year plan include:
“The new Rural Development Programme has been developed following an extensive process of stakeholder consultation over the last 18 months,” Minister Coveney said.
The submission of Ireland’s Programme to the European Commission marks a further important step building on the successful negotiation of a new Common Agricultural Policy under Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union.
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I suppose the fact that farming produce is one of or largest export sectors and also the fact that an exploding global population will require increasing food demand has escaped the nay-sayers…
What’s the point of increased demand for food if all we do is increase the subsidy to produce it ? Farming is either profitable or it’s not. No other industry or business in Ireland gets the subsidies that farmers do. They even get subsidies for doing nothing more than trimming their hedges under the REPs scheme. Literally free money for cutting the hedges on their own land.
“No other industry or business in Ireland gets the subsidies that farmers do.”
You must have been sleeping throughout 2008 I assume.
But it’s ok to ignore the billions the revenue is losing from private sector multinationals using Ireland as a haven, and to attack what has always been a mainstay of the Irish economy, agriculture, which, as some observers put it, is a minority. This ‘minority’ accounts for 10% of employment and of annual exports, contributing €24 billion to the economy annually. In comparison to other sectors who require huge levels of imports to be sustainable, agriculture (including fisheries) is hugely profitable and sustainable. With such a small number of people taking up agriculture, the government had to do what it can to keep this cash cow mooing.
Game, Set and Match.
Fantastic news for rural Ireland. Of course some naysayers will we commenting here complaining but logic doesn’t wash with those fellas. €4billion from the EU for farming, yet I see a lad complaining below about how the money isn’t being spent on the health service!! As if we haven’t wasted enough money on the health service black hole. The money farmers get from grants circulates through the whole rural economy, local shops, hardware, co-ops, rural businesses, creating jobs etc. this is great news for Ireland.
Do you not see the contradiction between agriculture being profitable and that we have to subsidise farmers?
Post of the day Emily !
farmers work 24/7 and some for less then min wages as little as 2 euros an hour .. get a grip
the land cant be taken to heaven
Are you selling that horse Harry ?
Evidently not Dermot!
Dermot Ryan @ the horse has got wings ….he is on red bull ,how about you
Inanimate, there is no comparison between food and other products produced by industry. I need food to survive. I can live without virtually everything else. At least if the food is produced in Ireland we can ensure certain standards. We have few guarantees about imported food. Irish food is produced to a high standard. As for profit, well part of the raising d’être of the common agricultural policy (CAP) is to ensure that Europe is food sufficient, irrespective of profit. If profit is your sole criteria this will not happen and you will end up with US style super-farms run by corporations and engaging in mono-culture. You could kiss the environment goodbye in that case. Farmers are ,largely the custodians of the Irish countryside and it makes sense to engage them in the process of sustainability. If there is a price to that then so be it. I still wouldn’t want to be a farmer. Shocking hours of work, numerous health and safety risks and a business dependent on the weather and other factors entirely beyond your control. The CAP isn’t perfect but it supports farmers, the environment, food standards and a very large Irish agricultural industry which is doing very well and will do better in the years ahead.
The CAP in its current form does nothing to ensure food security and precious little for crop diversity. It really hasn’t since Ray McSharry decided that it was a good idea to pay farmers not to grow crops. This whole justification is euro-flimflam. If every farm in the entire EU decided to start producing rape and nothing else, they would still get the single payments.
I wouldn’t want to be a farmer either, but at least I can see that the current system is part of their problem and not part of their solution. The abolition of bureaucratic interference in milk production is going to be the best thing that happened to Irish agriculture in a generation.
I wonder how much of this is given to agricultural corporations?….this should have a level of means test
@emily.I not a farmer but even I can tell you that for every one euro in grant money received 4 euro is generated for the local economy.One example is that Irish farms produce premium raw materials used in products exported world wide.Exports of food and drink accounted for €10bn last year alone. Other products such a cassin and whey protein account for 100′s of millions a year.
The fact is that if small farmers are not supported super farms will take over. Quality will drop and the economy as a whole will be damaged.
People see headlines like this and think farmers are pocketing this money directly.With the exception of a few large farms most are struggling to survive week to week.There are very few new farmers taking to the land.The irish economy needs all the help it can get.
Paddy, you can use the multiplier justification for just about anything other than making a big bonfire of €20 notes. The same money is taken out of the hands of taxpayers who would have spent it in the local economy. The argument simply doesn’t stack up in practice.
I agree that larger farms would take over if smaller farmers gave up. That’s the economics of a commodity business. But why would quality drop? Quality standards are essentially dictated by the buyers (mainly supermarkets). Given access to economies of scale for better production methods, you would expect the opposite if anything. Is there any objective evidence that the milk produced by big farms is of lower quality than that produced by small farms?
There’s a place for commodity products and there’s a place for niche products, and if you find yourself at niche size producing a commodity product, you’re in big trouble. I don’t see the benefit of trying to maintain that indefinitely. If people want to stay at niche size, we should be encouraging them to find a niche with decent value-added (which is what we are doing on a bigger scale with Irish infant formula).
Its not so much the multiplier effect so much as what the raw products are used in the production of.Take milk production for example.Most of Irelands milk is produced form grass feed cows. Now say thats being sold to a company like ‘Butter Ireland’ for €1a gallon.Butter Ireland turns each gallon into a product worth €8 a gallon providing jobs while doing so. Butter produced by grass feeding sells for a higher premium on the export market than grain produced butter generating higher export revenue for the exchequer. The subs that farmers are recieving are an investment by the tax payer that generates revenue from external sources. It provides jobs not just to the farmers but to the butter workers and those employed in transport ect.. While still generating a revenue stream that can be invested in other services. If a sub generates a profit and jobs within the economy I don’t really see what the issue is.
Now as to the emergence of super producers I’d ask you to take a look at what has happened in the UK. Supermarkets have forced smaller farmers out of the marked by putting price concerns over quality.
Super producing farms have emerged following the American model of factory farming.
The customer puts up with grain produced milk and products because there is really no alternative. Exports into niche markets are a fraction of ours per capitia due to there being no real difference between British products and those produced elsewhere. * using dairy as an example only*
*As for niche products as opposed to niche markets in general. I agree that there is massive room for development. However how are these markets going to be exploited without investment in the infrastructure to produce them. Consider for example that baby formula is a hugely processed industry due mainly to safety concerns. At the moment 100′s of millions of gallons of Irish milk is processed into whey power a primary constituent in its production.It is sold to multinationals at a massive profit to the economy as a whole. These companies produce elsewhere due to lower production costs. Production here on a small scale may provide a few jobs within a small company but the amount of start up capital needed will not generate the same profit as export.
I dont like these headlines either and I assumed that farming was a bad business model aswell. Its when you dig down you see why farming is so important to the economy as a whole. Its not a case of mearly distributing tax payers money. Its about getting a good overall return on an investment.
I knew Pegasus was in the way back Harry … how did you catch him ?
I don’t want to bid for him now ..nothing personal I hate flying !
Approximately 140,000 farms in Ireland… around 272,000 people working on farms… dont know how many thousands more work in agri and food businesses. €4bn divided by 140,000 farms is €28,571…. over 6 years is €4,761 per farm per year. Subsidies are in place to keep food in the approximately 140,000 farms in Ireland with 272,000 people directly employed on farms. €4bn divided by 140,000 is €28,571 which over 6 years is €4761. A lot of people do not understand that Subsidies are in place to keep food in supermarkets cheap for the consumers and to keep a steady food supply on the shelves. I would love to hear what people here would have to say if they were to pay the figure for food that would allow farmers to stay in business and to survive financially without subsidies or any firm of financial aid.
Subsidies are there to keep inefficient but politically important farmers happy. If we cut subsidies to nothing food prices wouldn’t budge a bit but we would save billions every year. If a farmer can’t make a living something is wrong with the industry and he gets 50 years of subsidies. If a carpenter can’t make a living then tough luck.
Plus the fact we have young people who have actual modern knowledge about farming after going to excellent agricultural colleges but who can’t get near land because there are old farmers living off huge subsidies doing the same thing they were doing 30 years ago.
NZ has no subsidies for it’s agriculture industry which is just as safe and environmentally friendly. The only difference is the NZ agricultural sector is hugely successful and exports 7 times the amount proportionally as the Irish agricultural sector. They are competitive, we are not.
Nz has SFP
No it doesn’t.
Lots of cash for the tiny percentage of our population who are farmers. Isn’t it great that we gave away our fishing rights in our own vast territorial waters so that a tiny portion of the population gets cash flung at it for 40 years?
The poor farmers have it so tough,make it better by giving them more grants.they don’t get enough as it is
Wow €4bn to farmers at a time when we’re about to cut another €1bn from the health services. No wonder they think Simon Coveney is the best Minister for Agri ever, he just gives them everything they want whilst always expressing fake concern.
I wouldn’t mind but fishing is far more profitable than farming. With fishing you don’t have to own land, you don’t have to sow crops, nor do you have the overheads of farmers such as vet bills and ESB. You just go out and fish, leave the small ones behind and they’ll replenish naturally.
I
Oh Jesus…
If you leave the small fish then they will breed small fish, not sound ecologically speaking.
Yeah and Coveney is now a bilderberger. I wonder who’ll be the next Fine Gael leader?
People always complain about farmers but this money will be earned back ten fold in exports and that will benefit the whole country. Agriculture is a good earner and the quicker we get it up to scratch the quicker we can make money so stop bemoaning our cash cow.
Red thumbers might learn about subjects before hitting the button but then it is the journal so I guess the gene pool is tiny.
“When we fish, we usually take the biggest fish and throw small ones back. This removes the largest fish from the population. The average size of a fish species can drop if the fishing pressure is great enough, because smaller fish are left behind to breed and small fish tend to have small babies. Big fish become harder and harder to find.” Stanford Uni.
and
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/side_0_0/shrinkingfish_01
Our fishing industry needs to be better managed and the same concessions given as land-based resources. Our fishing fleet could be our major source of income if it was subsidised at a fraction of the rate given to agriculture where most of the money ends up in the hands of a select few.
“BEEF baron Larry Goodman is receiving 10,000 a week in farm handouts from Brussels under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, startling new figures reveal.”
Indo 2005, what’s his take these day’s ?
John the title of the article should be “FARMERS TO GET 4BN IN SUBSIDIES BECAUSE THE PRICE OF THEIR PRODUCE HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE THE 1980″.
I don’t think any business in Ireland would survive if they kept selling stuff at the same prices as in the 80′s.
An uncle of mine in Skibbereen gave up dairy farming in 1985….he said milk prices are the same now as they were then
Well they might if their product was priced at double the world market rate in the 1980s.
Emily food production on a world price rate doesn’t work. Does that mean we should stop buying local milk and buy cheaper US milk that has hormones in it?
How can an irish farmer with 500 acres compete with a russian farm that has 100,000 acres. The russian farm provides no local jobs! He doesn’t buy anything local!
Farmers are getting this money to maintain the land in an environmentally friendly way which costs them money in a lot of respects, it isn’t profit into the back pocket for a new jeep!
Farmers need to be subsidised to have food in supermarkets at the price it is. A lot more farmers then ye think are in financial trouble at this moment and will be for the rest of the year.
That’s just a charade though, isn’t it? Politically speaking, we keep subsidising farmers because it’s the line of least resistance. Most of our farms are uneconomic and we are paying to perpetuate a farming class on subsistence levels. How is that sensible?
The level of ignorance on here is truly astonishing. The vast majority of farms in the country are small and unprofitable. Over 80% of farms are not economically viable. These grants are particularly needed in Western counties but its the bigger farmers, especially in Leinster that swallow up all these grants. While they play monopoly with land up there, the situation in other counties is far different. Working every day of the year for around 35k is extremely difficult for the farmer. Only a tiny percentage of farmers are on the high end of the spectrum.
lol! most farms are uneconomical yet you want to keep the situation. do you realise what uneconomical means? it means it takes more resources to put into the ground than what you get back.
Uneconomical farms should not be given handouts.
Cocaine dealers shouldn’t be given handouts either – but there you go ….
I look forward to the day when I walk through my hundred acre oak wood minding my one pig and her bonamhs and my three sheep and think ..
“At least I will live in a healthy place and eat healthy food …”
and turn to my kids and say ….. don’t ever live in a town , sure there’s Famine there !
Over the next 12 years the government will pay 12 billion in subsidies to farmers ..
they just keep saying the same thing over but just with different scenarios ….. it’s part of the urban/rural divide thing !
1 billion transferred into A.I.B. pension fund !
1 billion transferred into Credit Unions ; the President of the League of credit Unions said they didn’t need it .
the largest credit union in the country is the Gardaí one ….
Step away from the trough Michael Noonan !
massively subsidised and yet still they complain. If farming is a business then it should be made to compete as any other business would in an open economy, without so much state subsidy. A start up grant is fine but what the big farmers in this country get year in year out is beyond a scandal at this stage
A neighbout of mine has pulled a cool 1.4.million out of the E.U. so far and has built his farm up to 1100 acres , but God Bless him he still has to get 100,000 a year , sorry 90,000 -deduction for the civil service increments I suppose …
the best of luck to him !
He ‘s not buying my land though I’m going mothballing it ……
If those who pull in the big money were named there would be bloodshed…
Dermot i think you’ll find that most of the big farmers in Ireland are OLD MONEY. I know a good few dairy farmers who have expanded greatly in the last number of years. The only way they can do it is to have a second income. their wives are teachers or nurses. If they hand”t the second income they would’t off been able to expand as they have.
I agree Ned ! the irish farmer is very industrious … I believe that the famine insured that the land would never have to rely on govt. again !
The downside is of course that where two people are working then this devalues the need to stand up for the prices ;
John Bryan for example was a Garda , he had a pension and probably wages or at least a good expense account …so did it really matter if he made more than break-even on his farm,.
I believe that the CAP Should be targeted at full time and progressive farmers only ..
There are 40,000 farmers with off-farm income … if these were given a choice – a decent income on their farm or work and they all went for the farming option the country would thrive ; there would be 40,000 jobs instantly …
it’s social engineering yes but it is based on choice of the individual ….
there are two problems ; it;’s a hard sell but the constitution allows for it ….. and emigration would have to be capped or all we would get is 40,000 cheap labour immigrants here overnight and that would not help our dole queue ! …….
I was speaking to a retired dairy farmer once and he said “I spent all my life working for the creamery and the bank”
he failed to mention that he was working for himself when he was working for the creamery.
I think the way for meat production is for the farmers to give the abbatoirs so much a head to render the carcasses and take over the marketing of their meat themselves …get rid of bord bia, factory inspectors and those clowns in Quality assurance and do it themselves …have inspectors resident in the factories from the customer not the department …..
This is the future and it will happen …larry and co. have their money made we just have to point it out ! I wonder if a snoop into Namas sales would convince a few processors to walk away from their factories by-passing Mountjoy on the way !
how can the consumer know the real price of what they consume if money being taken out of their back pocket before they even hit the shops. Every time you pick up a pint of milk you are also paying for some dozy civil servant who hasnt added any value to the process. Its like buying everything through a protection racket.
Plenty of brand new Jeeps coming to s small town near you…
What if I asked one of you to work 7 days a week? But, you are not guaranteed your pay at the end of the 7 days- in fact you might not be paid at all.. Think of your time, your cost of petrol for the commute, your lunch etc everyday, your family depending on you…Then there is NO pay. Simply no money for anything at the end of your working week.. A farmer takes this risk every year, he/she buys the seed, the pesticides for the crop, the fertiliser, the man-hours, the diesel and oil for the machines etc.and at the end of it- the price could collapse and he/she might not even break even.. Or the weather is bad and you don’t get your crop at all. Then maybe the next year is a good year, but any profit goes to cover the losses from the previous year…. It’s a risk every year, I admire anyone who risks this in order to put food on other peoples tables.. Because all those saying if a business isn’t profitable it shouldn’t be in business, or that subsidising shouldn’t exist, might change their minds when they have nothing to eat…. The subsidies don’t even cover the costs of “trimming a few hedges”..
what about someone opening a coffee shop?, lets give them a subsidy, if we didnt we might not have any coffee shops…..
Dee4
the farmers got 20pence for a litre of milk in the 1980′s, today he gets 35cent for a litre to milk today. If all the farmers acted like your coffee shop example then what would happen? there’d be no coffee shops because there would be no farmers producing milk.
how much did a cup of coffee cost in the 1980′s and how much does it cost today? The milk price in the supermarkets is low. the supermarket are taking a profit regardless.
the price should be the price, A generation got fat on “cheap” sugar wheat and milk especially as they are the main ingredients of the junk food industry. And you are ignoring productivity , it makes sense that farms should be bigger.
Another issue not mentioned is the price of land, subsidies have made sure that agricultural land prices here are more expensive than residential areas in many parts of the world. There are no gains in subsidies just richer bankers and civil servants
Dee4 what are you talking about.
first of all you said “The price should be the price”. You want to buy food cheap, but you know, the food at the quality you are buying it cannot be produced cheaply. The supermarket set the buying prices, they set the price low so they can make money. With the price you pay (the processors cut and and supermarkets cut) the farmer is making a loss. YET YOU DEMAND TOP QUALITY FOOD. YOU EXPECT IT. If the farmers in the morning said no were are not going to produce food at a loss then all the supermarket shelves would be empty.there would be no dairy produce, no meat, no veg. nothing. yet if you give the farmer a fair price then everything goes up, milk, butter, cheese, yogurts, beef, lamb, pork, beer, whiskey, guinness, carrots, potatoes, ect.
-You don’t want chemicals in your milk for your kids cereal.
-You don’t want hormones in your beef.
-You want top quality baby food.
-veg must be fresh and top quality.
second point, farming and the junk food industry have nothing in common. the key ingredient in the junk food industry in sugar. we closed all the sugar mills in ireland because the government said that it wasn’t profitable yet they lied. it was profitable. now all the sugar you buy comes mainly from plantations in south america and africa.
third point. you say “it makes sense that farms should be bigger.” the irish agri sector is the second biggest employer in the state. if you make one farm out of Tipperary then what are all the people living there going to do. where will the people go. what jobs are they going to get? you would literally empty out the countryside overnight. Look at the big farms in Russia. very few people live there because there are no jobs. All because you want to buy top quality food at a cheap price.
land is expensive because there is high demand for it. same way houses are getting expensive in dublin because there is demand.
Elaine, no one is made farm. You obviously don’t like it, pack it in!
Do you work 7 days a week neenee???
If only farmers read the journal! (Not the farmers’ journal)
It’s hard to talk logically with a lot of the crowd here who bash the farmers yet have absolutely no idea of the sector, or it’s importance to our economy and food security.
Are you suggesting that farmers are ignoring the vast bank of expertise held by journal readers ?
I’m not a farmer. But a ‘townie’ who recognises the importance of the sustainable profitable and internationally respected brand that is Irish agriculture
Adrian, as a non-farmer and a Dub. I agree with you. Most posters have no idea of what the CAP is about, why it exists or the need for a food policy. Reading some of the comments they want food production to be treated the same as the production of every other product. Of course we all need food to live and the environment needs food produced in a sustainable way. Irish food production by and large manages to do exactly that due to the nature of our agriculture and our climate. The same is not true elsewhere. If you shut down farming in Ireland be prepared to import your beef from Brazil where is it “sustainably” produced by cutting down the rain forests. Farming is different to other industries in key policy respects.
A lot of people here have not got a clue what they are talking about. the problem in farming is not just an Irish problem but a European problem.
The issue starts with the price of milk, the price of beef ect. The price of milk that the farmer gets paid has not changed at all since the 1980′s. it may have gone up a little but we’re talking about 20pence in 1990 and today 35cent. I remember a cousin of mine selling a bullock at a market in the 1990′s and getting 1000pound. How much does a similar bullock make today about 1100euros.
How much did a teacher get paid in the 1980′s, how much do they get paid today?
how much did a plumber get paid in the 1980′s, how much do they get paid today?
how much did a banker get paid in the 1980′s, how much do they get paid today?
how much did a cleaner get paid in the 1980′s, how much do they get paid today?
how much was the minimum wage in the 1980′s, how much do they get paid today?
what would happen if farmers paid the same labour rates to their workers in the 1980′s as today?
the cost of farm inputs have risen machinery, diesel, labour, then the local DIY shop needs to make a profit, the local supermarket needs to make a profit, the guy selling cars needs to make a profit. the local coffee shop needs to make a profit. ect.
If the EU and the supermarkets want to work hand in hand selling food at a cheap price while also making a profit themselves (supermarkets i mean) then they will continue to give farmers grants. because the stance that they have got right now is unsustainable. If farmers prices went up they way people wages went up with inflation you would have no grants and no farmers complaining.
Ned feck of with the facts. You’ll skew the debate – what are you thinking of. I’m aghast. And you a regular poster. I think I’ll use that complaint button and tell the Journal that you’re trying to censor a perfectly unreasonable debate with actual valid questions, facts and information. We don’t need people on here who know what they’re talking about. I’m seriously offended!
Ned its called supply and demand, let the market decide what the price of milk is and how big a farm should be. We have a nation obese on milk and and junk food cereals, their beef burgers from McDonalds and all the junk food where milk and wheat and sugar were the primary ingredients all subsidised through the 80′s and 90′s
Dee4 its not houses or stock markets your talking about. Its food. IE NO FOOD = FAMINE. If we let the nation decide the price of milk then you would be paying 3 times the price. this is the whole reason for the subsidies. You want to buy top irish food at a cheap price.
The nation is not obese on milk, its obese on sugar and fat. SUGAR MAKES PEOPLE FAT. the beef burgers in McDonalds is not top quality food. its minced meat of poor quality meat. Old cows and other meat cut offs. Its safe to eat but you wouldn’t compare it to mince meat bought from a butcher or a steak bought in tesco. the burgers in McDonalds probably have meat products from some other countries in Europe. the poor quality bits. Hence why we had the horse meat scandal. its cheap for a reason.
Your crazy “where milk and wheat and sugar were the primary ingredients all subsidised through the 80′s and 90′s”. What are you talking about milk and wheat are stable food for 99% of the world. wheat makes bread, bread doesn’t make you obese? You can make a lot of healthy food with milk and wheat. Sugar is a problem, sugar makes kids fat. the lack of exercise makes kids obese.
By the way i bet you didn’t know the burger buns in mcdonalds contain sugar.
dee ;
you are missing two vital points I feel ;
firstly – tariffs have existed for year to protect incomes …. the cost of living in Ireland is way higher than Thailand or brazil …
secondly ; food should carry a carbon rating ….for example if you go into my local town and buy my lamb it would have travelled seven miles from farm to butcher …. a gallon of petrol…if you buy New Zealand lamb in the same butcher ..it will have travelled thousands of miles under refrigeration ; this is not recognised ; farmers pay carbon tax on their diesel ; do the guys in New Zealand or the shipping owners ?
I was listening to a supermarket owner once on the radio and he said it was cheaper for him to buy Irish rashers in Britain and have them imported than to buy them of the local supplier ; the food industry is the old oil industry …. very every powerful and rich people trading rather than being legally obliged to present product in the best and fairest way …i.m.o.
Conor Faughan said that A barrel of oil is sold 25 times before it reaches our pumps ;
The way the world has to organise itself is that each country produces as much of what it needs and “swops” for what it doesn’t …
a simple example of the kind of thinking would be ; we produce too much lamb ….. the french like lamb they produce too much wine we like wine ….
We send a ship of lamb to France it returns with a ship load of wine … simple example but logical !
This is the only way the E.U. will survive if it moves away from “economics” and concentrates on provision of need !
This should be the focus of politicians and the real work of actuaries …… money confuses the whole issue because money demands profits -ever burgeoning profits and yet the pool of money is finite for some reason !
Dermot i agree with what you say but we live in a world where the USA are pushing for free trade across the globe.
This kills local farmers, one of the countries in Latin America accepted an IMF agreement because which had a clause the US were pushing on free trade. It destroyed local agriculture and the economy tanked as a result.
Yeah Ned the U.S. are getting a bit big for their boots …..
Great news for rural ireland. All this money will filter back down to every small town and village in the country as well as giving the people of ireland affordable safe food.and it also may give people employed in the agricultural foid industry some assurances about there future. Its a win win all round.
Thanks for the cash EU.. don’t worry we’ll be back to complaining about you soon enough..
I think we pay more in now , so even that argument it mute.
Dee4 just a question. would you be working in the job your in today if you were getting the same pay levels as someone doing your job back in the 1980′s?
Ireland is a net recipient of EU funding.
Ming said we pay 2 billion in taxes….. and get 1.4 back !
Why do we pay to be members of this union when it has recently opened up its “protected status ” …
It’s like paying membership to a shamrock rovers and turning up to a game at Milltown and wondering where the pitch has gone !
Milltown in Galway to boot ; it has moved so far from what it was !
the environment doesn’t need farmers.
food prices are not dependent on subsidies to farmers
But the subsidies are there because farmers don’t get a decent price for their produce!
It’s a crazy amount of money to hand out. If farms can’t make money they shouldn’t be on business, particularly the thousands of part time farmers
Leave the E.U. so … it’s European money not Irish money !
Let’s say my farm isn’t profitable ……
I sell it to a farmer up the road …… he puts the same amount of cattle on it … he makes no more money just adds to his pile … fair enough !
I move into town and set my kids up in a good cocaine business ; distribution or something , because that’s where the money is in food ; distribution…
then a few years later my kids shoot the farmer’s sons who bought our land and buy it back of their widowed mother … with the coke money …..
Good idea Ciaran ; it took me a while to figure it out there for a while !
I think i’ll move to Galway ; great politicians in West Galway ; for both small farmers and drug dealing murderers ; sure how can I loose ?
The Irish Language is subsidised to the tune of €6Billion every year and is paid for by every person in the country. Nobody questions the usefulness of all this support for a Hobby. Most countries in the rest of the world are spending money learning English as it is a universal language. Imagine having that money year in year out to spend on jobs and other useful services. At least the farmers are producing something we will need to survive. I resent the minority in society dictating to the majority.irish should be optional and no funding should be taken from sick children to subsidise signage and written Irish on web sites and government documents — it makes our government twice the cost as everything is duplicated. Imagine no house tax, no water charge, etc
an awful smell around here today!!!!!
the very reason subs are paid to farmers is because of the people on here complaining about them!! anyone like to guess why?? lets get the brains working as they havent been so far today!!
One potato
Two potato
Three potato
Four
Five potato
Six potato
Seven potato
More
It is an ultimate sop to control.
Cumulative income of less than €1 billion and grants of €4 billion – pass the anti-dandruff shampoo quick. I have to milk the cows
Note to dept. of Agriculture …… My people are on the way to have a look at your set-up !
Expect early retirements !
And no I won’t leave my house …you know how much I like not being disturbed on my farm , now don’t ye !
I’m still waiting for a reply by the way …… then I decide what to do next , and yes I understand statute of limitations ! you’re delaying !
I’m cool – Simon’s sailing friend is also mine ….
Agreed
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