Latest News

20 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock has said that the threat of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) must be removed as a means of acquiring land for non-essential infrastructure projects. Mr Sherlock was speaking following the disclosure by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport that the public consultation on Greenway undertaken earlier this year does not apply to the contentious Athlone to Galway section or the Kerry and Connemara Greenways, leaving many farmers angered.

Commenting Mr Sherlock said, “We all support the formation of ‘Greenways’ and advancing rural Ireland through tourism but these projects must be delivered with farmer consultation and goodwill. Landowners along the proposed route thought their concerns were being listened to at long last with the consultation process but now we’re told that the consultation only applies to the Greenways of the far distant future. Unfortunately, this means the threat of CPOs looms large once again.”

“ICSA is very much in favour of new infrastructure, be they roads or Greenways, but not at any cost. We will stand firmly with our members who believe that they have been bullied by the threat of CPOs. We call for the immediate withdrawal of these threats so we can all sit down around the table and work out the best routes going forward.”

ENDS

-NO COHERENT REASON FOR EU RENEWABLE ENERGY U-TURN

20 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said that the decision of UN Climate Change to partner with Ethanol Europe Renewables Ltd provides strong vindication for the argument that farmers in Europe should be actively encouraged to grow crops for biofuel production. “ICSA has strongly opposed EU Commission proposals to alter the Renewable Energy Directive (referred to as RED II) which would undermine biofuels produced from crops grown by European farmers such as sugar beet, maize and rapeseed. It is more clear than ever that there is no coherent reason for the proposed EU renewable energy U-turn which would phase out crop based biofuels and ICSA is calling on Minister Naughten to oppose this at Council of Ministers level.”

ICSA believes that hard pressed tillage farmers in Europe need every possible outlet for their produce at a time when record high global inventories of cereals has led to successive years of low prices for tillage farmers. Biofuels are an important source of revenues for European farmers (in excess of €6.6 billion annually). In addition, biofuel production provides European farmers with important by-products such as high quality protein and energy feed such as distillers’ grains.

The importance of these by-products cannot be overstated as there is a significant deficit of protein crops for animal feeds in Europe. Distillers’ grains are a significant ingredient in dairy and beef rations in Ireland and provide an alternative to expensive imported soya. Moreover, distillers’ grains from EU ethanol plants are GM free. The GM status of livestock feed is looking increasingly significant in terms of meat and dairy exports to high value markets.

However, the main reason for the evolution of the biofuel sector has been the targets set for renewables as a percentage of total energy consumption, which is a central element to EU climate change policy. The target for 2030 is that renewable sources will account for 27% of total energy consumption.

While this policy makes sense on a number of levels, the EU has been incoherent in terms of achieving renewable targets in the transport sector and at present, only 6% of transport fuel comes from renewables (mostly biofuels).

The proposals to do a complete U-turn on biofuels under the EU Clean Energy Package (involving re-writing the Renewable Energy Directive) makes a mockery of EU Climate Change strategy. Crop based biofuels are achieving 65-70% less GHG emissions than fossil fuels. This is now starkly exposed by the partnership of UN Climate Change with Irish agri processor, Ethanol Europe Renewables Ltd (EERL) which will be showcased with an international alliance of ethanol producers at the COP 23 event in Bonn next month.

“If biofuels are good enough for UN Climate Change they should be part and parcel of EU climate change strategy. It is now urgent that Ireland supports biofuels, in the interests of farmers all over Europe and in the interests of ameliorating the pressures on Irish farmers to reach unattainable targets on emissions reductions when there are ready made improvements to be found in the non-ETS sector via reducing transport emissions from existing combustion engines.”

ENDS

 -BUT GOVERNMENT STILL DOESN’T UNDERSTAND DAMAGE DONE TO PRODUCTIVE FARMING

18 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has welcomed news the cabinet has approved a request from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to exempt family farm transactions from the 6% stamp duty rate announced in Budget 2018. ICSA understands that the upper age limit of 67 for consanguinity relief will be abolished so that land can be transferred within families at a 1% rate. This will be included in the Finance Bill.

“ICSA has been demanding a reversal on this issue since budget day. However, it is clear that the Government still doesn’t get it when it comes to the damage done by the trebling of stamp duty to 6%. The stamp duty rate of 6% will still apply to land purchase. This is a savage assault on the people who get up early in the morning.” 

 “Previous government policy was supposed to support the consolidation of fragmented farm holdings. ICSA believes this tax is an own-goal as it will likely reduce the overall take of money because people will be deterred from getting up early, working hard and looking to finance farm consolidation projects. It is also clear that it will undermine the ability of farmers who want to expand their holding to spend money on improving newly bought land because additional money will have to be borrowed to fund the stamp duty thus reducing what is available to reclaim or upgrade land. In the short term this will reduce employment and enterprise in rural areas, in the medium term it will slow down productivity growth on newly bought farmland.”

 ENDS

18 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said that the draconian hike in stamp duty calls into question the claim by the Taoiseach that he wants to support the people who get up early in the morning. “Farmers who take out long-term loans to buy the field next door or the next generation of farmers who take over farms are the definition of people who work hard and get up early in the morning.”

The trebling of stamp duty from 2% to 6% is a draconian increase which will cost tens of thousands of euros to people who get up early in the morning. Previous government policy was supposed to support the consolidation of fragmented farm holdings and to encourage the orderly transfer of land to the next generation. The stamp duty decision makes a nonsense of this and exposes the Taoiseach to a charge of empty rhetoric.

“While ICSA welcomes the continuation of the exemption from stamp duty for young trained farmers and the fact that the stamp duty does not apply to the consanguinity relief (stamp duty at 1%)  for transfers of land involving farmers up to 67 years of age, the reality is that a stamp duty rate of 6% will cost farmers millions.”

“ICSA is demanding that age limits be abolished permanently for consanguinity relief and that the stamp duty trebling should not apply to agricultural land. Minister Creed knows that this is an incredibly backward step and the Department of Finance have again demonstrated an abject failure to understand how this tax is an own-goal. It will likely reduce the overall take of money because people will be deterred from lifetime transfers or from consolidating holdings. Moreover, those who do buy land will now have much less money available to re-seed, reclaim and generally improve land they have bought with a consequential reduction in VAT and labour taxes.”

“The Taoiseach needs to quickly get to grips with what has happened in this budget and how it has undermined productive, hardworking people. Other examples include the fact that the reduction in USC is considerably less beneficial to workers than the social welfare increase for those on the dole and the fact that the government has pulled back on its commitment to self-employed people in terms of bringing the earned income tax credit into parity with the PAYE tax credit.”

ENDS

17 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has called on the Government and all Irish MEPs to give a clear and unambiguous commitment to opposing concessions on beef quotas in the Mercosur negotiations. “This is not about standards; this is about whether you care about the livelihoods of Irish and European beef farmers. It is beyond comprehension how any responsible politician would accept a trade deal with South America which will undermine Irish beef production at the very time when our main market for beef in the UK is under threat due to Brexit.”

“We cannot accept the EU making trade deals all over the globe when they are making no progress in solving the trading arrangements with the UK. The UK took 270,000 tons of Irish beef in 2016. Anything which damages that market is disastrous for Ireland and combining that threat with 70,000 tons or more of ultra-cheap Brazilian beef and equivalent amounts of poultry would be suicide for our sector.”

“The overall net trading gain is as little as €3 billion for Europe, in terms of tariff elimination or reduction. In practice, this means that to avoid some €4 billion tariffs on industrial exports to South America, Europe would forego approximately €1 billion in tariffs. However, for a relatively small gain on tariffs the damage to the beef sector here and the knock on impact on rural communities would be immense. We export some €2.5 billion of beef and cattle which is predominantly within the EU and this is under threat. The knock-on impact to rural communities is a multiple of this.”

“ICSA believes that the standards that European farmers work to are far in excess of the South American standards. However, as we have seen earlier this year with the meat adulteration scandal in Brazil, there is no real prospect of the EU being able to enforce the same levels of traceability in South America as are enforced rigidly on EU farmers. The Taoiseach should be cautious about believing that standards can be the same. In any event, the issue is whether we support beef production in Europe or in South America – we can’t do both.”

ENDS

16 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent says that the food chain needs to be much more transparent if farmers are to have any chance of making a viable return in most farm enterprises. “The EU must tackle the inherent lack of balance in the food chain. Farmers spend three years producing beef cattle, processors spend three week getting it to the shelf and it takes the retailers three days to sell it, yet farmers are the only ones not making a profit.”

“What is needed is compulsory audits of the food chain at EU level to see what margins are being made at processor and retailer level on key farm commodities such as meat, bread and dairy. We have very clear transparency around average farm margins but have very little information on what margins are being made by processors and retailers.”

“It is not good enough that companies who have such a central role in determining what consumers eat and how much they pay can hide behind opaque structures and keep their accounts out of public scrutiny. Most companies are required to publish accounts but processors are avoiding this by private company structures. On the other hand, multinational giants in the retailing sector, by virtue of the huge turnover in millions of products, can hide how much they make off the backs of farmers.”

“This has to change. We have seen farmers squeezed more and more over the years and this has coincided with increasing concentration of processing and retailing in the hands of a few, dominant operators.”

“The EU Commission needs to take the lead by regulating this. ICSA was the first farm organisation to call for regulation and we want to see an EU authority being given the powers to audit the big players in processing and retailing with a view to publishing average margins across the sectors and with a view to calling to account businesses that engage in excess profiteering at the expense of both farmer and consumer.”

ENDS

13 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA sheep chairman John Brooks has said that processors are ramping up their efforts to keep sheep prices down. “Meat plants are creating the impression of a backlog and an oversupply in the marketplace by using imported lamb and lamb products from Northern Ireland and the UK. The result of this on the ground is farmers here are having to wait three to four days to get lambs slaughtered and with some companies this wait can be up to a week.”

Continuing Mr Brooks said, “This practice puts at risk the whole idea of traceability, origin green and quality assurance. It also shows a complete lack of respect for both the producer and the consumer.”

“Processors are also capping weights while also making efforts to procure heavier lambs from their agents in a cynical attempt to acquire as much ‘free meat’ as possible, all at the expense of the producer. ”

ENDS

10 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock has said he is outraged that farmers wishing to apply for an exemption to spread slurry after the October 15 deadline will face the increased threat of inspections. “This is the definition of sneaky terms and conditions. Farmers desperate to avail of flexibility this year will unfairly become a priority category for inspections not only this year but in future years also, according to a statement from the Department of Agriculture.”

“The land is saturated and farmers’ hands are tied. Flexibility should be about giving farmers the time to safely do what needs to be done. Calendar farming is always difficult with unpredictable weather conditions and when conditions make slurry spreading impossible farmers are left in an impossible situation.”

“With the prospect of increased inspections and possible penalties department officials are in effect ratcheting up the pressure on farmers. The result is that farmers may opt to spread slurry in conditions that are far from ideal. Panic spreading of slurry in the coming days in wet conditions is not in anyone’s interest. The risk of farm accidents is also increased by unworkable deadlines.”

ENDS

10 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has welcomed the increased funding of €25m for the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme in Budget 2018 describing it as “An important first step towards the full reinstatement of the scheme’s €257m allocation prior to austerity cuts which have severely impacted farmers on the lowest incomes.”

However, Mr Kent was scathing in his response to the minimal increase to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the derisory reduction in the Universal Social Charge (USC). “It is unacceptable that the commitment given to the self-employed to bring equality in tax treatment has gone by the wayside. This was supposed to happen over a three year period yet an increase of just €200 for 2018 still leaves a lot of ground to be made up. This minimal increase will leave farmers and other self-employed liable for an extra €500 income tax compared to employees where income exceeds €16,500.”

On USC Mr Kent said “Despite there being the scope for material reductions in USC, Minister Donohoe has chosen to inflict the most derisory reductions to the charge on hard working people. The quarter per cent reduction will deliver a lot less to people who get up early in the morning than has been allocated to the dole.  It is important to note that USC is a very unfair tax on farmers who invest on their farms as the capital allowances available against income tax do not apply on USC.”

Mr Kent welcomed the announcement that land under solar panels would be classified as agricultural for the purposes of Capital Acquisitions Tax relief and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) retirement relief, subject to certain limitations.  However, he lamented the fact that there was no increase in the thresholds for CAT liability, which remains at €310,000 for category A, €32,500 for category B and €16,250 for category C.

Mr Kent described the increase in stamp duty on non-residential assets from 2% to 6% as completely over the top and said this would have a big impact on people trying to consolidate farm holdings.

ENDS

9 OCTOBER 2017

ICSA president Patrick Kent has accused the Taoiseach of not hearing the concerns of the Irish beef sector if he believes that the Mercosur talks are about ensuring higher standards in Brazilian beef imports. “Mr Varadkar needs to understand very quickly that the issue is the flooding of the EU market with 70,000 extra tons of beef at a time when our exports of 270,000 tons to the UK are under threat from Brexit. The Brexit threat means that any EU beef quota for Brazil is unacceptable especially as the UK could end up with a separate import deal from South America.”

Mr Kent was reacting to recent comments made by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that he would insist on the ‘highest standards’ of animal welfare, health and safety should a deal on beef be struck with the Mercosur trading bloc.

“Ensuring standards are met on beef imports from South America does not address the heart of the issue and goes no way towards addressing whether it should ever be allowed into the EU in the first place. The truth is that we will hear a lot of wishful thinking about forcing Brazilian beef imports to meet EU standards but the evidence from the meat adulteration scandal in Brazil earlier this year proves that they can’t be trusted. Worse, it shows that the EU’s monitoring is ineffective in the face of blatant fraud and bribery in South America.”

“This has been borne out in a report published this week by EU Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) on the recent Brazilian meat scandal. The report clearly states that they could not guarantee meat products coming into the EU from South America adhere to EU standards.”

“ICSA has been highlighting the fact that large quantities of beef imports has the potential to decimate the beef industry here. This, together with the fact that EU officials could not stand over the safety of what is being presented to consumers makes the decision to include beef quotas in the deal illogical. The mooted proposal of a 70,000 beef quota should finally be taken off the table.”

“The Taoiseach needs to be careful not to undermine his own credibility with statements which suggest he believes that there are circumstances in which more Brazilian beef exports would be acceptable. The only position which Ireland can take is full opposition to beef quotas in the Mercosur deal and this should be underlined at the EU summit as a key issue particularly in the context of market disruption due to Brexit.”

ENDS