Thousands of farmers protest in Dublin

Several thousand farmers protested outside Dublin Castle today over planned changes to the way EU farm payments are made.

The Irish Farmers Association protest got underway as European agriculture ministers held their final session in the informal two-day farm council meeting.

Farmers carried banners urging Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney not to "sell out Irish farmers" and saying planned reforms would not work for Ireland.

IFA president John Bryan told the crowd Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney must stand his ground against the European Commission's "flawed proposals" on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap).

EU commissioner for agriculture Dacian Ciolos is insisting that a mandatory minimum payment be introduced to the single farm payment scheme, so that farmers on lower payments would receive more money while farmers who had been receiving very high payments would lose out.

Mr Bryan said this would be very disruptive to production as it would penalise the most productive farmers and reward those who were doing very little.

“Minister Coveney must reject outright a minimum payment by building strong alliances against the proposal and deliver the flexibilities that were agreed at the March farm council,” he said. “A mandatory minimum payment would destroy the Minister’s approximation model and lead to a level of redistribution that would be hugely damaging for Irish agriculture, and would result in a serious loss in output, jobs and exports for the Irish economy.”

After the council meeting ended, Mr Ciolos said he was more confident now that an agreement would be reached on the reform of the Cap by next month, than he was before he arrived in Dublin on Sunday. The Irish presidency of the EU ends on June 30th and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney is aiming to get agreement on the new Cap deal before then.

Mr Coveney said he was not surprised that farmers were protesting outside the meeting. “If farmers weren’t vocal and campaigning strongly now, when would they be? We’re on the verge, I hope, of getting an agreement which is going to determine the shape of agriculture for the next decade so of course farmers are going to want their voices heard.”