Common Agricultural Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I appreciate that. The Minister also mentioned simplification. Most farmers who have been hearing about simplification for the past 40 years would almost wish that somebody would talk about complication, because it seems to be the opposite that always happens. Every time schemes are brought out, we are told there will be simplification but, in actual fact, it means more paperwork, more red tape and more measures to comply with. We need to start doing what we say. If things are to be simpler and easier for farmers to comply with, it needs to be like that. ACRES is an example. The Minister might say that has been ironed out. I accept that there has certainly been progress in his term as Minister. However, when that scheme was brought out, it was such a mess that the Department did not know how to administer it at first. That again erodes farmers' confidence in the whole system. That is what I am getting at here. All of this is about farmers' confidence in the system. They need to know that, when they are set a particular objective, they will be rewarded when they attain it. That is not how they feel. They are afraid the next CAP will be very much the same.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29