ICMSA fear government’s aim to have “dairy farms gone”

Government ‘pretence’ about the managed reduction of dairy volumes has been shown in the recent nitrates decision, say ICMSA.

Unhappy with the decision, ICMSA President Pat McCormack said the decision by the Government to designate almost the entire country for a drop from 250kgs of N to 220kgs of N in 2024, “marks the end of the current Government’s cynical pretence about managed reduction of dairy volumes and the real intent now stands revealed.”

Mr McCormack said that the almost nationwide reduction - taken together with Cow Banding – represents what he says is “a twin-attack on the family dairy farm system that built Ireland’s multi-billion Euro dairy system and funnelled those export revenues through their yards into their local communities.”

Mr McCormack said that the Government’s unveiling of what he said was “their true intention all along” will rebound on the Government because it will force local politicians and TDs to confront the reality of Government policy.
“It’s out there now – the almost nationwide reduction of N, regardless of geographic consideration or improving water quality – and nobody can plead ignorance anymore.

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“The Government has shown us what they intend doing and we are now calling on every single rural politician in Ireland to show this Government what rural Ireland intends doing over the next rounds of elections.

“We expect and will get that support because everyone can see that at this stage it’s not about the data or the science: it’s actually about the ideology and the Government’s need to keep in harness anti-farming elements.

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“These decisions, these attacks, will fall – and are designed to fall – on the dairy farmers with less than 100 cows: in other words, the majority of Irish dairy farms,” said Mr McCormack.
The ICMSA President has appealed to the Minister for Agriculture to delay making a proposal on these ‘ruinous ideas’ to the EU Commission so that sensible proposals can be put in place that will not fatally wound Ireland’s most famous and world-renowned family dairy farm sector.