The Taoiseach has defended actions taken by the Government to help farmers get through what has been a bad year for them.
Mr Ahern told the annual general meeting of the Irish Farmers Association in Bluebell, Dublin, last night that support for the sector would continue. He said that since the beginning of the year he had visited 14 different counties and was aware of the problems caused by the bad weather. He added, however, that no reasonable person could argue that the steps taken to help farmers, two fodder packages and the introduction of a farm assistance scheme, combined with early payments of money due on other schemes, were not of real benefit.
In his speech, Mr Ahern said he was aware of the strong opinion, which he shared to some extent himself, that emergency aid should be more closely targeted and therefore more generous to the farmers in real need and should not be open to significant abuse or accusations or partiality.
"If a better or speedier system of doing that can be devised and agreed with the farm organisations and Teagasc, the Government will be happy to consider it," Mr Ahern said. On the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in Agenda 2000, the Taoiseach repeated that the Government remained resolute in its opposition to the Commission's proposals. "We are not just negotiating for an economic sector, we are negotiating for the incomes of Irish farm families, and we are determined to defend the right of Irish farmers to a respectable standard of living." He would be impressing on the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, tomorrow, the importance of the negotiations not just for Irish agriculture but for the economy as a whole. Mr Fischler addresses the a.g.m. to day. In particular, Mr Ahern said, he believed co-financing of the CAP would be rejected because the majority of member-states opposed it as a major step towards the disintegration of the CAP.
The Taoiseach said that in the new round of structural funds, the Government would consider the new needs of the agriculture sector in the new millennium.
He said structural funding in future should be focused on achieving real and demonstrable progress on the structural constraints faced by the industry.
"We must also, for example, deal with the issue of the age profile of our farming population. We must also face up to the evolving new structures of Irish agriculture, including the much larger role played by part-time farmers and the potential that information technology offers to support farm incomes in future activity. He announced the establishment of an expert group to look at the future of agriculture when the Agenda 2000 decisions are made to provide a clear-sighted analysis of the sector. This group will also take on board the conclusions of the White Paper on rural development which will be published in the next few months.
The Taoiseach, who received a warm welcome from the farmer delegates, was told by the IFA president, Mr Tom Parlon, that his members would not "accept a bum deal" in the agricultural reform package. He outlined a litany of problems farmers faced in the beef, lamb and pig sectors and said additional feeding costs caused by bad weather would run to £140 million.
He said CAP reform as outlined would mean redundancy for 50,000 farm families within five years and render a further 25,000 non-viable within 10 years.
Mr Parlon said he appreciated what the Government had done to relieve the fodder crisis but the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, had not listened to the IFA when it asked for a targeted scheme.