THE Irish Farmers Association has described as "derisory" proposals to compensate beef farmers for losses due to the BSE which were approved by the EU Commission yesterday.
The package of some £560 million involves one off payments £17 a head on any special premiums paid last year and a head on the suckler premiums. It will be put to agriculture ministers on Monday.
In addition, individual member states will be given top up payments - in Ireland's case £8 million - which can be specifically targeted by them to those farmers most in need. This is likely to mean that special payments can be made to Ireland's winter finishers who have suffered particularly severely.
The total package is likely to be worth about £60 million to Irish farmers, and the simplicity of the administrative procedures means that payment can be reasonably prompt. The proposals are likely to be endorsed by ministers whose main business on Monday, however, will be the issue of the partial lifting of the British beef export ban.
Announcing the compensation package, which also has to get parliamentary approval, the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, said that while the rapid response of the Commission to the deteriorating market situation, through special intervention measures, seemed to be yielding results, producers were nevertheless experiencing serious difficulties due to price and consumption declines.
The Irish Farmers Association described the Commission's proposals as a major step backwards" and called on the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, to reject them.
The chairman of the IFA's livestock committee, Mr Raymond O'Malley, said the proposals amounted to a reduction in compensation from £20 to £17 and a reduction in the compensation for suckler cows from £24 million to £20 million. This would cost Irish farmers £10 million, he said.
"The IFA estimates that the BSE crisis will cost the beef and livestock sector up to £260 million in 1996 alone. Compensation of £57 million as proposed by the Commission is derisory," he said.
Mr O'Malley said there would be "a severe political backlash from cattle farmers unless Mr Yates delivered full premium compensation for winter finishers, including heifer and bull beef producers as well as animals exported live".
The IFA is seeking compensation of £71 a head for cattle sold between January and mid March and £136 a head for cattle sold from then to June 9th.
The Commission also issued a statement deploring the British decision to block unanimity decision making in the Union.