Speaking following the latest meeting of the Farmers Charter negotiations, the President of ICMSA said that he was “genuinely shocked” by the revelation made by the Department at the meeting that Minister McConalogue had signed off on the changed payment dates as far back as February.
Pat McCormack said: “Not alone did the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine not inform the farm organisations at the meeting in early March that this was the case but had instead continued with a charade that this was still part of the negotiations”.
Mr McCormack said farmers were still no wiser as to why the Department had changed payment dates that they must have known are critical for farmer payment schedules and mandates. He called on Minister McConalogue to make a statement setting out the reasoning and sequence.
