An Bord Snip: Agriculture
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Written by Niall of Associate Notes
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The report on this section begins by outlining the role of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, (D/AFF) before going establishing that the D/AF&F accounts for €3.3bn of expenditure in 2009. It claims that the D/AF&F and its associated agencies employ circa 6,200. The Bord is proposes cuts of €305m in expenditure and staff cuts of 1,140 for the Department. It recommends testing the use of outsourcing administrative functions regularly.
One of the main themes of the section is the privatisation and selling off non-essential assets. It dismisses the notion that it would be unwise to do so at this point in time since property prices are unlikely to improve to “anywhere near the inflated levels of recent years” in the near future.
In particular, the report recommends selling of many of Teagasc’s property assets around the country. It notes that Coilte owns 7% of all land in Ireland and recommends that its operations should be reviewed and that consideration should be given toward asset disposal and privatisation.
Teagasc is the target of many of proposed rationalisations. Job losses in agricultural colleges as well as research and advisory services are proposed for the short to medium term. It’s also proposed that the situation whereby Teagasc has separate offices to the Department should be changed. The report also notes that many of the previously mentioned organisations offices are within commuting distance of each other and that no more than 35 should be allowed to remain. The group also feels that the District Veterinary Office structure should be reviewed and that they too should share offices with the above organisations.
The report proposes that consideration be given to abolishing Bord Bia in the light of the transferring of its enterprise and marketing functions to Enterprise Ireland.
The writers of the report recommend that the Suckler Cow scheme should be terminated due to a lack of resources and notes that this could help reduce Co2 levels. They also call for an increase in the disease levies. If the recommendations are followed, famers would also no longer receive full market value for livestock destroyed as a result of TB and Brucellosis. The report supports the view that farmers should receive only 75% of market value as they should be expected to bare a portion of the risk.
A large reduction in the spending on the Disadvantaged Area Compensatory Allowance Scheme (DACAS) is favoured by the report authors. They believe that it should be reduced by 30% as farmers’ incomes are now supported by the Single Farm Payment Scheme and payments under the Rural Development Programme.
The group feels that an in-depth value-for-money review of the scheme for the effectiveness of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) should be conducted, that REPS4 should be closed and that there should be no rollover from REPS 2 and 3 into REPS 4. It is the view of the writers that a farmer should only be allowed to avail of REPS once rather than multiple times.
Corporate Services are also targeted for staffing reductions.
I think the cutbacks will be worse than post famine. It will drive small farmers and shops out of business, make it more difficult for farming sons get an agr education, receive advice of a technical nature and outsource schemes to many who have no understanding of farmer’s low literacy levels, isolation etc. It has clearly proposed to snip a massive hole in farmer’s pockets. Some of those elderly farmers who struggled through the 50’s & 60’s with no arse in their pants must now bear the brunt of Bertie’s Celtic Tiger’s roars with scant rural transport, lack of finance, punitive drink and smoking laws, hospital cutbacks etc.
There will be a lot more than the garda stations, rural PO’s. and small primary schools going. The effects on the fabric of rural life, family home life and general wellbeing will be catastrophic. Where do they see the farmers in 2020?
Europe sends this money to farmers for a reason. It is not the farmers choice to depend on a cheque in the post. Its a very unfortunate result of very badly thought out CAP policies which were all fundamentally flawed.
However this situation now exits and there is no easy way out. It is important for people to understand that the Irish government will and still receives the money intended to support the average farmers. But these new changes suggest that they keep it for themselves and not pass it on to the intended receipiants.
The agriculture section supports jobs both directly and indirectly as does any manufacturing industry. The cuts in the report go far beyond placing a fair tax on the farming sector. They completely remove an income from the industry. Killing an industry. No economist can really recommend the killing on an industry in a down turn can they? It makes as much scene as raising corporation tax.
Everytime you suggest raising corporation tax, an economist dies.