The President of ICMSA has said that he is “alarmed and deeply concerned” that the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine has not included dairy-related investments in its proposals for farm investment grants under CAP Post 2020.
Pat McCormack called on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Charlie McConalogue to clarify the matter.
“If the idea behind this is the usual Green-inspired anti-dairy policy because of their mistaken belief that dairying is disproportionately emission-heavy, then the answer, surely, is more investment in modern equipment and storage,” Mr. McCormack said.
“The whole point of TAMS (Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes) is the grant-aiding of modern low emissions plant and farm facilities. If dairying is removed, then we’re deliberately setting out to make our most technical and successful area of commercial farming less modern and sustainable. It’s an absolutely bizarre and counter-productive logic that will really shake confidence in the reasoning of our Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine,” he added.
The ICMSA president said that the measure will also have the effect of discriminating against those areas of the state where dairying is the primary farming concern.
