The current plan to reform EU farm payments would have a devastating effect on the most productive farmers, general secretary of the Irish Farmers Association Pat Smith said yesterday.
The European Commission wants to move its single farm payment system from a method based on how much farmers produce to one based on a flat payment for each hectare.
IFA president John Bryan said: “This is the first reform where there is a proposal for savage cuts to active farmers.”
IFA chief economist Rowena Dwyer said farmers who received payments above €250 a hectare would lose 27 per cent of that income. “There are 60,000 farmers in this cohort,” she said.
The redistribution of payments from the most productive farmers would have “a fairly devastating effect” on plans to increase milk output by 50 per cent by 2020.
Mr Smith was speaking as leaders from the Irish Farmers Association, the meat and dairy industry, the co-operative movement, Teagasc and Macra na Feirme came together yesterday to express concern about the direction the negotiations were taking.
EU agriculture ministers will meet on March 18th in a bid to reach agreement on how the direct payments should be shared out.
