PHOTOS: Laois IFA farmers at Rock of Dunamase to protest CAP cuts

Dozens of Laois farmers gathered in their tractors at the foot of the Rock of Dunamaise on Wednesday, November 10, to form a giant tractor shaped No CAP Cuts sign in the Dobson family’s field.

Francie Gorman, the IFA President, and Henry Burns, Laois IFA chair, were among the group hoping to gain attention from European leaders gathering in Dublin this Friday.

Mr Gorman, a beef and sheep farmer in Ballinakill, told the Leinster Express why.

“I’m here with my colleages in Laois IFA today to highlight the cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy. This is going to be the main item on the agenda for European Prime Ministers in Dublin this Friday. We cannot countenance the fact that the budget for agriculture is going to be cut by 22%. It will have a devastating impact on farmers in this area.

“Laois has always been a very well farmed, productive county and the hits that the county will take will be in the order of €9.6m a year over seven years. And a further hit to the economy of almost €14m a year, with about a hundred jobs lost. That’s the scale of the devastation that these proposed cuts will cause,” he said.

Mr Burns was asked if they had considered a street protest, with few visitors except some American tourists at the Rock of Dunamaise on the rainy day.

He said that with other potential strikes taking place, “we didn’t really want to disenfranchise other people at this time”.

“We represent over 2,500 Laois farmers, they are in line for a cut of €3,500 per farm. The Taoiseach as the president of the European Union at the moment needs to nail down a budget that doesn’t cut the agricultural budget.

“With these cuts, we will lose farmers from rural areas, and we will lose the ability of business being able to support themselves in rural areas. There isn’t much to replace agriculture in rural Laois. It’s still very important,” he said.

One of the farmers at the protest was John Treacy from Emo.

“The cost of business is gone that we can’t keep going. Fuel, electricity, water, all those charges have doubled, maybe trebled in the last 18 months. Fertiliser is off the charts as well, there is a rebate this year but it’s not going to cover anything like the cost.

“All we hear is people giving out about the price of food, food is still cheap. People can’t live without food, but they can live without cigarettes or drink, there’s not a word about them when they go up.

“This is about CAP, that Laois alone is losing €9m, all Europe seems to want to do is spend money on defence.

“I am on a third generation family farm, there won’t be a fourth. It’s not that I haven’t got someone to take over, but it’s not viable. You’re looking at the price of inflation alone,” he said, agreeing that it is “devastating”.

Kieran McEvoy is a farmer from just outside Emo, growing winter wheat, winter barley, beans and spring malt and barley for the drinks industry.

“These cuts will decimate farming, particular tillage. We’re tillage and dairy, the tillage side will probably have to go if the cuts come in. We’re on about a third less already than we were 20 years ago, and they’re talking about cutting it by another 24%.

“It can’t work. People seem to want high quality food which we’re willing to produce, but they don’t seem to be willing to pay for it.

“Most of our tillage is in rental land, so the single farm payment helps cushion the cost of rent, we’re already at a very low ebb,” Mr McEvoy said.

John Fitzpatrick is the chairman of the National Organic Products team with the IFA.

“We were very quickly identified as an essential service when the pandemic hit. This is no way to treat people classed as essential services. The world population is heading for 10m people, they need to be fed.

“We need the younger generation coming on to make sure we produce quality food. But for local communities, local schools, its a wider picture. The EU has a target of 25% of farms being organic by 2030. Ireland’s target is 10%. I’d like to know where those targets are now in lights of these CAP cuts,” the Laois organic farmer said.

A similar protest was taking place on The Curragh, Kildare.