Top 10 recipients of EU farm grants not farmers, IFA says

The Irish Farmers' Association president has responded to claims that large farmers are "creaming" large sums in EU grants at a time when agriculture is supposed to be going through its biggest crisis in decades. Mr Tom Parlon said the top 10 "fat cats" who were in receipt of the largest agricultural grants from the EU were not farmers, but corporations, industrialists and agri-businesses.

He was commenting on EU figures which showed that the top 10 beef farmers shared EU grants totalling £1.5 million last year, while the 10 biggest recipients of tillage grants shared £1.7 million.

The release of this information was a politically inspired leak designed to "soften people up", Mr Parlon told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine yesterday. The average amount of EU support was about £3,000£5,000 for each farmer, he said.

Mr Parlon said farmers' confidence in the cattle, pig and sheep sectors was "shattered". Prices had collapsed, farmers could not sell their animals and bad weather had caused a £50 million loss of fodder.

Senator Feargal Quinn said farmers, by continuing to talk about aid and grants, were not facing up to the reality of how to solve the problem. A new focus on consumers and markets was needed. "As a nation, we have not managed to instil the confidence we have in our produce in the consumers of other nations."

Mr Parlon said the French and British had "re-nationalised" their beef markets by excluding meat from other countries. Irish beef "couldn't even get in the door" of British supermarkets. French farmers were intimidating retailers into selling only French beef; when one tried to sell Irish meat, they put an electric fence around his shop. As a result, "the only consumers likely to be eating Irish beef at the moment are Algerians, Russians and Egyptians, and we practically give it away to them".

Mr Quinn said the prevalence of tuberculosis, BSE and the use of angel dust was evidence of an "enemy within" farming which needed to be tackled. Mr Parlon said there had been "bad eggs" in farming but this problem had been totally cleared up.