THE Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, last night expressed confidence that huge cuts in payments to cereal farmers would be successfully resisted by farm ministers here for a three day meeting.
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Franz Fischler, is demanding a cut of £1.1 billion in arable aid in response to reports of massive overpayments to grain farmers over the last four years. The Commission estimates that farmers received £6.6 billion compensation for falls in prices that did not occur. Mr Fischler's proposed cutback would cost Irish farmers £10 million.
The cutbacks were also required to balance the farm budget, but buoyancy in agricultural markets "has made that requirement redundant, and agriculture ministers are in no mood to facilitate Mr Fischler.
The package is tied to price proposals for 1998, basically a roll over of current prices. Mr Yates, however, hopes to sell his vote dear, insisting that his price is agreement to a floor price for Irish beef for the autumn.
He insisted that continued subsidies to the arable sector were necessary, as Irish prices were now severely depressed in the wake of a serious fall in demand for animal feedstuffs.
The Commission's estimates, he said, were based on 1995 prices. He warned that cereal intervention might be necessary because of last year's bumper crop.
The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, described Mr Fischler's plans as a totally unacceptable attempt to "penalise grain farmers for the BSF problem".
Responding to Mr Fischler's statement on Friday on further CAP reforms, Mr Frank Allen, president of the ICMSA, said that direct income support payments to farmers were a far better principle than artificially high consumer prices.
"The essential element in any income support system is the targeting of supports, with emphasis on those most in need," he said.
