Opposition criticises Coughlan over sugar compensation

Opposition parties have criticised the Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan for her decision to award Greencore nearly 70 per…

Opposition parties have criticised the Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan for her decision to award Greencore nearly 70 per cent of the EU's sugar restructuring compensation fund.

Fine Gael agriculture and food Spokesman Denis Naughten described the decision as a slap in the face for sugar beet growers.

Mr Naughten said the lion's share of compensation is both going directly and indirectly to Greencore with farmers getting slightly over a quarter of the available compensation.

"This is a far cry from the traditional 60-40 split in the beet crop returns," he said.

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"Growers, contractors and hauliers are facing significant losses both in terms of cash flow and now worthless beet handling equipment."

"Today's announcement is a slap in the face for those farmers who have suffered the most from the wipe-out of the sugar industry," he added.

Labour's Mary Upton, accused Minister Coughlan of "capitulating completely" to the demands of business.

Dr Upton said: "It is immediately obvious that Minister Coughlan has accommodated big business over those farmers and workers who have dedicated much of their lives to the development of the sugar industry, and whose livelihoods have been totally jeopardised by the closure of Irish Sugar".

"Mary Coughlan could have intervened directly and made this money available to former employees, but instead she has abandoned them to the whims of the company - just as she did when she negotiated the effective end of the sugar industry in Brussels last December," she concluded.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris described the Minister's announcement as a "disgrace".

Mr Ferris said: "We believe that the government have handled this issue as badly as they have the issue of fish quotas. They stood idly by while farmers in this state lost their entire sugar beet quota while farmers in France increased their quotas".

"Their sole focus has been on securing a short term compensation package rather than looking at ways to secure the long term future of the industry," he added.