Galway farmers are facing a cut of at least five per cent in the CAP budget in the next financial round of the payment, which runs from 2021 – 2027. However a leading Galway TD has warned the actual cut may be far higher.
Fianna Fáil Galway West TD Éamon Ó Cuív has expressed serious concern in relation to funding of the Common Agricultural Policy post 2020. The next round of funding is proposed to be cut by five per cent, but the TD pointed out that this does not take inflation into account, meaning "the real cut" could be as high as 20 per cent, for the next period.
The Cornamona based TD is calling on the Government to "make up the shortfall" by increased co-funding of the CAP's Rural Development element, which covers the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme; the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme; the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme; and the non-farm rural development schemes.
He has also called for a cap of €60,000 on the basic payment scheme and the greening payment, and a "total levelling off "of payments per hectare. “Changes are needed for the farming community," he said. “I will continue to press for reform of the basic payment and greening schemes. At the moment farmers are getting grants, based on the stocking density they had and the grants received in 2001. It is totally unacceptable that a grant scheme that would be running to 2027 would be based on things that happened so long ago."
