State aid for Irish farms on breadline
2 October 1998
State aid for Irish farms on breadline
A STATE relief package is being put together for thousands of Irelands farmers who are struggling to cope with the worst crisis to hit Irish agriculture for 25 years.
As in the UK, all sectors are affected. Appalling weather this summer has compounded the crisis, leaving up to 20,000 farmers without sufficient fodder to see them through winter.
With families on the breadline and turning to charitable organisations for help, the government is extending the family income support scheme to farmers for the first time. It provides a 60% state supplement to the income earned, guaranteeing a family with three children some £250 a week, subject to a means test.
In addition, the government is planning a £20m relief scheme for those worst affected by the fodder shortage, while pressing Brussels for an increase in beef export premiums and the reintroduction of an export credit guarantee scheme. According to farm minister Joe Walsh, the loss of the Russian market, which took 70,000 tonnes of Irish beef last year, has resulted in a 15% price fall to farmers since June, leaving returns now 22% below 1995 levels and "virtually in free-fall".
A 20-strong team from the Irish Farmers Association has travelled to Brussels to detail the plight of producers. President Tom Parlon said it was crucial that trading with Russia should resume – but denounced the EU Commissions decision to send intervention beef to the country, which is another blow for the Irish industry.
The sheep meat and pork sectors are equally hard hit, with lambs which would have made £30 last year now being sold for £7. The fall in pig prices has been so dramatic that a pork battle has broken out among the supermarkets in Ireland, with Tesco cutting its prices by 30% and the Superquinn chain offering 50% reductions. *