ICMSA: Dairy farms are being ‘regulated out of existence’
Speaking in the wake of a number of pronouncements by government parties in recent weeks, President of the ICMSA Denis Drennan responded that “it’s been very obvious for a long time now that the minister and his government have taken a decision to quietly regulate family dairy farms out of existence”.
This approach is apparent in an announcement by the Minister of Agriculture of the proposal to scrap the Dairy Reduction Scheme, he maintained.
In his interview on the Morning Ireland radio show on RTÉ, Minister Charlie McConalogue expressed his support for farmers growing crops and adopting biomethane, but he was noticeably half-hearted with regard to the beef sector and even more dismissive of the dairy sector, the ICMSA chief said.
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Government must back farmers
The agricultural sector has established a compelling case for the introduction of a derogation on the use of nitrates based upon our established and globally-recognised methods of grass-based feeding and it is high time that the government embraced the fact that it is possible to overcome difficulties with watercourses without eliminating those farming methods, the President of the IFA, Francie Gorman, confirmed.
Essentially, “we can improve water quality in Ireland without decimating Irish farming” he said simply. We only have to look at Denmark, where the authorities have opted not to pursue any further derogation. Here over 90% of our farmland is under permanent grassland while the figure in Denmark is below 10%, but our government does not appear to take any account of the steps that our farmers have taken towards improving water quality.
“Everyone knows that our water sources need to be pristine, but Irish farmers have adopted more than 30 particular actions in the effort to achieve this position.
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