ICSA Rural Development chair Edmond Phelan has said reports that up to 60,000 Irish farmers could be affected by proposed changes to CAP payment eligibility underline the significant risk to Irish farm families. “Emerging proposals at EU level could restrict future CAP payments to farmers whose principal income comes from agriculture. However, there is a fundamental misunderstanding at the heart of these proposals. Irish farmers are not working off-farm because they are inactive, they are doing so because farming alone is not delivering a viable income,” he said.

Continuing, Mr Phelan said, “You cannot build a food security policy on the assumption that only those earning the most from farming are the ones producing it. Many drystock farmers are working full days on their farms and taking on all the risks that come with producing food, yet still have to rely on off-farm income to keep things going. Any attempt to define ‘active farmer’ based mainly on income will unfairly penalise thousands of genuine farmers who are out working their land and producing food.”

He said it must be remembered that Irish farmers are price takers, with little control over what they are paid, and remain fully exposed to rising input costs, disease outbreaks, and all sorts of weather pressures. “CAP was designed to support food production and provide income stability in a volatile sector. Moving towards a system that excludes farmers based on how their income is structured completely ignores these realities. Ironically, pressure on farm incomes is being made worse by trade deals with lower-cost regions like Mercosur coming into effect today, and that’s a big part of what’s driving farmers into off-farm work in the first place.”

“If introduced, this would have serious consequences for beef and sheep farmers. While it is being presented as simplification, it risks becoming just a very simple way of excluding genuine working farmers.”

In addition, Mr Phelan criticised suggestions that farmers in receipt of state pensions could be excluded from CAP payments in the future. “This makes no sense on the ground. Many older farmers are still actively farming and playing a key role in keeping farms going. Removing supports would undermine generational renewal and disrupt the gradual handover of farms, which is how Irish farming continues from one generation to the next.”

Mr Phelan said ICSA is calling on the Government to firmly defend Ireland’s farming model in future CAP talks and to ensure that any definition of ‘active farmer’ reflects real farming activity rather than income ratios alone. “We need an approach that recognises the contribution of all active farmers, regardless of whether they have an off-farm job. If Europe is serious about food security, it cannot afford to push working farmers out of the system simply because they need a second income to survive.”