The regulations “take the fun out of farming,” says O’Sullivan

OVER-regulation means ‘farming is no longer fun’. That was the message from one West Cork farmer to a local TD.

Deputy for Cork South West, Christopher O’Sullivan, called for a relaxation of the rules in a speech to the Dáil last week.

Deputy O’Sullivan detailed the excessive bureaucracy and regulation burdening farmers, saying it threatens the future viability of the sector.

The Fianna Fáil MP said he recently visited Bandon Mart and Skibbereen Mart and met with frustrated farmers who expressed their fatigue with the complexities of qualifying for grants and environmental schemes, and fines for minor documentation errors.

“As one farmer told me, farming is no longer fun. If farming isn’t fun, I don’t see how we can encourage or motivate the next generation of farmers to get into this vitally important industry,” Deputy O’Sullivan said.

Deputy O’Sullivan highlighted specific inconsistencies in regulatory practices, such as the sudden introduction of requirements that had not previously been communicated to farmers, such as a three-star rating for bulls, which resulted in financial losses for unskilled farmers. He criticized the lack of flexibility and clarity on many issues.

“We must stop the maximum exodus we are seeing, similar to what has occurred in the fishing sector. Many of these directives come from the EU, but as a government we must do everything we can to ease these rules and ease the burden on farmers,” O’Sullivan said.

Deputy O’Sullivan called for a sustainable approach that allows farmers to prosper without undue hardship. “The call for change is clear: reduce paperwork and regulatory hurdles before Ireland loses more of its farmers.”

Meanwhile, IFA Mountain Farms Chair Caillin Conneely has called on the Department of Agriculture to ensure Acres balancing payments are paid to all farmers as quickly as possible and to let farmers know where they stand on plot scoring and investment non-production (NPI) applications.

“Farmers in the cooperation areas were sold a puppy at Acres. We were promised up to €10,500 per year for the five years of the program, but in the first year we received nothing and even now we have no idea how much and when we will be paid this year,” Caillin Connee said.

“We don’t have a complete understanding of our land performance and where we stand in terms of our NPI conclusions.

This is simply unacceptable. Farmers cannot continue to suffer losses because the Department does not have its ducks in a row,” he told the IFA website.

“NPI submissions closed in early December last year, but there has been radio silence since then. We hear it may be late summer before any NPI permits are issued to allow farmers to start working, let alone be paid for it.

“We need a complete rethink here. I call on the Minister to ensure that innovative solutions are found and all necessary resources are provided to speed up this process and enable farmers to start work and be paid in a timely manner,” Conneely added.