Common Agricultural Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I appreciate that. We need to develop a strategy around generational renewal which recognises that the older farmer is part of the farm. The previous situations where farmers felt they had an exclusion order and could not go near the place any more if they went into any of these schemes is totally inappropriate. We need to find a way to do this in partnership so we have generational renewal to make farming more profitable and therefore bring more young people into it, while keeping the experience and the sense of being part of it among older farmers and the people who want to stay with it.
In regard to the CAP, there are a number of things that arise. Simplification has to happen. There has to be an allocation of funds for active farmers. We have to see the restoration of the two pillars. One of the things many farmers are finding very difficulty to come to terms with is that the two pillars that served us so well for so long are being discarded. We need to look at that. However, the ring-fenced budget lies at the core of it. The budget we have in place for the CAP has to be maintained. In fact, it should really be extended.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14