14 FEBRUARY 2018
ICSA rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock has welcomed the announcement by Minister Creed regarding the allocation of €25m in additional ANC funding announced in Budget 2018. “ICSA is pleased to see some certainty regarding this additional money and is broadly supportive of a strategy to favour farmers facing the biggest challenges.”
Mr Sherlock added that the reform of the ANC scheme on biophysical criteria would likely mean that the decision on the €25 million was only a stop gap measure. “The challenge now is to look at the ANC reform for 2019 and to think about this in terms of a new CAP post 2020. This will be the real debate. ICSA wants to see the ANC deliver more money to the most disadvantaged farmers, particularly low income cattle and sheep farmers. The future ANC should take account of the huge challenge posed to farmers on heavy land where rainfall patterns are getting worse and winter feeding periods are longer and longer.”
“We need to reflect on the fact that the ANC payment used to be a real income boost for suckler and sheep farmers twenty years ago but that it has been gradually watered down to a point where its value has been significantly eroded. ICSA wants to see ANC make a real difference again and this means putting more resources into the most disadvantaged farmers.”
ENDS
