Common Agricultural Policy

At the point where we decided that we were going to pursue this agenda of public money for public goods, we were on the way out of the European Union, but they were on exactly the same path.

Ten years later, it turns out actually they've done a 180 degree U-turn and that area-based basic payment support for production is hardwired into the Common Agricultural Policy.

Now a lot of farmers on the continent are not happy with the CAP because there's an element of flexibility about some of it not being there for production and of course the budget is not as big as they want it to be.

But frankly, I think most farmers in this country, whichever jurisdiction you're in, would bite your hand off to have the problems that EU

And what we're finding at the moment is is that those schemes aren't working well.

So the transition from the common agricultural policy to England's agricultural schemes has been chaotic.

And most commoners will feel they've been put at the top of a canyon in a canoe without a paddle and they're bashing against the rocks as they go down and some of them are capsizing.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I'm hearing a lot of concern.

This is a really big threat to the principles of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Irish government don't appear to have farmers' backs in the way that they should have.

They have brought forward, our own government, the people who should be protecting and advocating for a Common Agricultural Policy, have brought forward a draft proposal that will actually see Ireland contribute significantly more into a European budget, but get less back in terms of agricultural supports.

And that flies in the face of what we actually need going forward.

So when you consider the additional challenges that our farmers are facing, the huge importance that farmers are to our rural communities, but also the potential future challenges that society faces in terms of food security, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that we have an Irish government that's bringing forward a proposal that would actually see a real cut in cap.

EU Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers meet in Luxembourg today and tomorrow, with Luxembourg's Agriculture Minister Martin Hansen attending.

They will try to agree a partial negotiating position on reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy after 2027.

A new committee to monitor Luxembourg's housing measures meets for the first time this morning.

It was agreed in the summer in the tripartite accord and will check whether government decisions are working.

So I don't accept that there's no support.

The transition away from the Common Agricultural Policy is still underway.

the Environment Secretary, Angela Eagle.

All week, we've been taking a closer look at the top fruit harvest.