Republican News · Thursday 30 January 2003

The minister for ostriches

Ferris accuses Walsh of inconsistency

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

Out of touch, inconsistent, misguided, just plain wrong or the equivalent of a political ostrich. These are all apt ways of describing Fianna Fáil Agriculture minister Joe Walsh. In the last week, he showed all of these "qualities" and more in his response to the EU Commission proposals for revamping and massively cutting spending on subsidising agriculture in Ireland.

It has been clear since the Agenda 2000 agreement that the EU Commission was signalling its intent to massively cut its farming subsidies. Then, Agriculture minister Walsh and the farming organisations indulged in a lot of back slapping about how they saw off more serious cuts. They were prepared to ignore the reality that though they had won a small battle, they were losing the war to keep the status quo in subsidies.

Even this week, as Walsh signalled his opposition to the latest proposals from Franz Fischler, another Fianna Fáil minister, Brian Cowen, was also in Brussels to begin a process of negotiation under the remit of the World Trade Organisation that will massively cut agricultural subsidies.

The WTO opening position is to seek a 45% cut in export subsidies and 55% reduction in aid for agricultural production.

None of this seems to matter to Minister Walsh who told a meeting of EU farm ministers that "I see no reason, internal or external, for the EU to embark on any significant reform at this time".

What is more bizarre is that some farming organisations are backing the minister's proposals, while at the same time, in the case of the Irish Farmers Association, running a "save the family farm campaign". The IFA is targeting the supermarkets, beef processing factories and other food processors. It seems that there is no learning curve in the IFA. Its leadership still does not seem to have grasped that 30 years of the CAP has decimated family farming in Ireland, while at the same time it has created a thriving agri-food business.

It fell to Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris to highlight minister Walsh's inconsistency. Ferris accused Walsh of being "dangerously inconsistent" on the CAP proposals. The North Kerry TD said that the minister had given two completely different interpretations of the Fischler proposals and the effects they would have on Irish farmers.

Ferris said: "There is no doubt that aspects of the Fischler proposals do amount to a threat to Irish farming. However, the CAP does need to be changed and this government needs to be making its own proposals as to how this should take place. It is not good enough simply to demand that there will be no reform of a system that has clearly failed tens of thousands of Irish farmers over the past 30 years."

"Farming and rural Ireland in general are in crisis and burying your head in the sand is not going to solve those problems. What is needed is a radical overhaul of the entire thrust of agriculture and rural development policy at EU and national level."

For now, it seems that Minister Walsh is to remain in denial of reality and farmers will be the ones who suffer most.

The Fischler proposals

(1) Decoupling. A single payment annually, independent of what is produced on the land, to replace all existing direct payments.

(2) Cross-compliance. Linking that single payment to maintaining environmental, food safety, animal welfare, health and occupational standards, as well as keeping all farmland in good condition.

(3) A stronger rural development policy, with more money, new measures to promote quality, animal welfare and to help farmers meet EU production standards.

(4) Degression. Reducing direct payments for large farms to generate additional money for rural development and funding further reforms.

(5) Cuts in intervention prices paid for dairy and cereal products.

(6) Retention of milk quotas until 2014/15 with an annual rise of 1 per cent in the quota to compensate for cuts in market supports.