NEW GRANTS FOR PROCESSORS WHILE FARMERS WAIT FOR PAYMENTS

ICSA president Malcolm Thompson has reacted with dismay to government plans to make
€68m available to processors to upgrade their facilities. “I have no objection to
processors getting grants when monies are available, but a string of budget cuts on
farmer schemes suggests that this cannot be afforded at present. Surely the
government should have taken care of its obligations to farmers under the Farm Waste
Management grant before embarking on any new spending,” said a frustrated Mr
Thompson.

“Farmers will be sore that there seems to be no budgetary difficulties in relation
to this fund. It will be interesting to see if the grant aid for factories is paid
as agreed or whether there will be a later announcement to stagger the payments over
three years, as has happened with the Farm Waste Management Grant,” he added.

ICSA beef chairman Sean Scully re-echoed these sentiments and added,

“With the
prices factories are currently paying farmers, I cannot see enough cattle being
produced to make use of new facilities. The actions of beef factories in recent
months show that they have no intention of making any effort to support beef
farmers. Beef prices here have been consistently behind UK prices and following an
extremely difficult and prolonged winter finishing period, most beef farmers are in
dire straits.

”

Mr Scully also criticised the fact that the scheme is biased towards larger scale
processors as the minimum expenditure is €2 million. “We need to hold on to smaller
processors. Many abattoirs have already been put out of business by excessive
government regulation. This has reduced competition which has been to the detriment
of farmers.”