Clare’s Green Party councillor admits the level of red tape facing farmers must be reduced if the sector is to survive into the future.
The local authority has formally given its support to the Irish Farmers’ Assocation’s ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign at a special meeting this week.
Farmers’ frustration was the subject of discussion at Áras Chontae an Chláir this week as members of Clare County Council met with IFA representatives.
The meeting heard that 12,000 people in Clare are employed within the agricultural sector in some way, representing 20% of the county’s working population.
With an estimated 508,000 acres of farm land in the county, agriculture contributes over €1 billion to the local economy annually, according to IFA figures.
Many of those in attendance at this week’s meeting spoke of the challenges farmers are having in doing their time and labour intensive work, while also keeping up with mounting paperwork and bureaucracy.
Kilrush Fine Gael Councillor and small farmer Gabriel Keating says those working in the sector need to know they’ll be given sufficient income support to justify the intensive “bookwork” involved in various schemes.
Taking its lead from its European counterparts, the Irish Farmers’ Association has recently launched its ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign, which questions the role of EU policy in Irish agriculture.
Clare County Council has officially endorsed the campaign which is seeking a “fundamental reset of how farm policy is devised and implemented both at the EU and in Ireland”.
A consistent theme in recent European protests against the introduction of the Nature Restoration law has been the claim that an EU “green agenda” is making farming less attractive.
The average age of a farmer in Clare is now 59, and Lahinch Green Party Councillor Liam Grant says the sector must become less about bureaucracy if young people are to be encouraged to pursue a career in farming.
Feakle native Stephen Walsh, who was elected Clare County Chair of the IFA last month, says the Government can’t plan for the future of the agricultural sector, without listening to farmers’ concerns.
