Heydon says EU's latest efforts to cut red tape of ‘limited benefit' to Irish farmers

Irish Independent

6 days ago

Speaking at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels, he said that while the proposals address some concerns raised by Ireland and member states, their impact on Irish family farms may be marginal.
He welcomed some changes, particularly to the performance clearance and amendment processes used by governments, which he said 'should go some way to ease the administrative burden for member states in relation to conditionality'.
However, Mr Heydon expressed doubt over the relevance of some elements of the package for Irish farmers. 'A first impression of these proposals may be of limited direct benefit to Irish farmers,' he said.
'Our family farm structure means that while we have very few very large farms, we equally do not have a large number of very small farms. So the initiatives related to the small farmer scheme are of little benefit to Ireland.
'We need to ensure that the end result delivers some real reduction in the administrative burden for farmers and for member states.'
In a later discussion on the EU's deforestation regulation (EUDR), which is due to come into effect next year, Mr Heydon said: 'There remains the potential for significant administrative burden… on primary producers in the beef and our dairy sectors.'
He urged the Commission to explore simplified implementation approaches and supported calls to delay enforcement. 'Ireland therefore supports the calls for a further delay in implementation to allow time to address these issues.'
ICMSA president Denis Drennan described the Commission's simplification proposals as 'unconvincing' and said the overall 'regulatory tide' shows no sign of easing.
'There's no real confidence in the Commission on this drive for simplification. We've seen and heard it all before and so far from the issues being simplified, they become steadily more cumbersome and complex year-on-year,' said Mr Drennan, who specified the EU Deforestation Regulations as a perfect example of 'talking' about simplification, while 'acting' to make things more complex.
IFA president Francie Gorman highlighted last week that this is now the second corrective package on the CAP within a year. 'This fact should serve as a lesson for the future and shape our discussions. Farmers need policies that are coherent, consistent, meaningful and implementable, with greater farmer input throughout, but particularly in design stage,' he said.
However, he warned that future simplification efforts must not undermine the common nature of the CAP or open the door to uncontrolled renationalisation.
'That would mark the end of CAP as we know it,' he said.