Watch: Farmers protest in heart of Dublin city over future of CAP funding
Farmers from all over Ireland gathered in the heart of Dublin city centre today (Tuesday, May 20) to protest over fears about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget.
The joint protest organised by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) and the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) took place outside the European Commission's offices in the city centre.
The European Commission last week (May 14) published a large package of measures designed to "simplify the CAP and boost EU farmers' competitiveness".
The CAP is a common policy for all EU countries and is managed and funded at European level from the resources of the EU’s budget.
The commission is understood to be planning a radical overhaul to the EU budget – the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – as part of which the commission is planning to merge its various funding programmes into a smaller number of funds, which would be allocated all together to member states.
However, the IFA has warned the commission against "stripping away the CAP budget in favour of a single fund approach to the EU budget under the MFF".
The president of ICOS, Edward Carr, has also stressed that CAP is the "foundation of a sustainable and competitive farming and agri-food sector in Ireland and Europe".
The Dublin protest coincided with other protests across EU member states today that were organised by various farming organisations.
The protest in Dublin was led by deputy president of the IFA, Alice Doyle, and the president of ICOS, Edward Carr.
IFA deputy president Doyle believes that any changes to the CAP could have "huge consequences" for the farming community in Ireland, and across the European Union.
She told Agriland: "It means that that budget can be pilfered at any time and money from that budget can be used for anything other than just food production.
"The CAP budget has always been there to protect food production, and food security in Europe. If that budget is not ring fenced, there is always a risk that the budget can be used for something else, and that food production will not be supported.
"At this moment, there couldn’t be anything more important than food security."
According to ICOS president Carr, farming is not sustainable unless the industry is supported by the European Union.
He said: "We’re proud to be farmers, we’re proud of what we do, we want to continue to do it, and we want the next generation after us to be able to do it. Unless we are supported it’s not possible.
"We are one of the best countries in the world to produce food, and we need to protect that. We can produce sustainably in this country, and that needs to be protected."
"This is another crossroads, farmers are being faced with a lot of change over the last few years, farmers have embraced those changes, just as there is a little bit of settlement coming back into the change," Carr added.
The European Commission's representative in Ireland, Peter Power, reassured Irish farmers that they "will be heard".
Speaking to farmers at the protest, he said that farmers have always been central to the European project, and that that has not changed.
"The president of the Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) has made it very clear, farmers are entitled to a fair and sufficient income.
"Commissioner Hansen came here in January to hear directly about the concerns from Irish farmers. We are in listening mode."
"The budgetary cycle is kicking in now. Your protest comes at a timely manner, when your voice will be heard," Power added.
