IFA spells out to Tipperary County Council how red tape is hitting farmers

Caption for Photo above: Tipperary IFA members protesting outside Tipperary County Council’s Civic Offices in Clonmel on Monday, March 11. They are joined by a number of public representatives. South Tipperary IFA Chairman Pat Carroll is pictured front row on the left of Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Ger Darcy and North Tipperary IFA Chairman Baden Powell is standing to the right of Cllr Darcy. picture John D. Kelly

Tipperary County Council was bluntly told last week that an “urgent solution” needs to be found to serial planning objections to proposed farm developments being lodged to the local authority from individuals and bodies based in other parts of the country.

The delay and obstruction of farm projects caused by objections from people and groups located as far as 150 miles from county Tipperary was one of a shopping list of issues South Tipperary IFA Chairman Pat Carroll outlined at Tipperary County Council’s March meeting in Clonmel.

Mr Carroll and North Tipperary IFA Chairman Baden Powell gave a joint presentation to the council meeting after leading a protest by IFA members outside the Council’s Clonmel Civic Offices as part of the organisation’s “Enough is Enough” campaign that is highlighting farmers’ frustration and anger at increased regulation, bureaucracy and falling incomes.

The South Tipperary IFA Chairman began his presentation by outlining agriculture’s massive contribution to Tipperary’s economy.

Mr Carroll said agriculture in Tipperary contributes €2.6 billion to the local economy and more than 15,000 people were directly or indirectly employed in agriculture, which equalled 20% of employment in the county. Over 10% of the working population worked directly in farming.

He noted a high proportion of farm revenue circulates in the local economy.

He said there are 770,000 acres of agricultural land in Tipperary, which is the third largest in Ireland in area terms. Tipperary has 182,000 dairy cows, 50,000 beef cattle, 170,000 pigs, 75,000 ewes, 877 thoroughbred horse breeders and grew over 40% of the country’s cider apples.

He went on to outline the ways farmers are addressing the environment, economic and social challenges to agricultural sustainability. He said farmers are very close to reaching the 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

They are involved in renewable solar and wind power and energy crops but the emissions benefits of these will go to the energy sector due to international accounting systems.

Mr Carroll said it was critical farmers reach water quality improvement targets.

“There are lots of small measures that we can do on a day-to-day basis on our farms that can greatly help water quality.

Farmers have always worked with the science of the day through the advisory services, but more and more of these advisors are allocated to form filling scheme applications and not on the ground with farmers,” he pointed out.

He then turned to the regulatory and bureaucratic difficulties facing farmers.

Planning objections

Mr Carroll spoke of how farmers who have to carry out works on their farms that require planning permission are being frustrated by objectors, both individual and bodies, who are against any agricultural work and live far away from the site of the proposed developments.

He pointed out that objections are even being lodged against organic farmers’ building projects. He cited the case of a Tipperary farmer converting to an organic farming operation who needed to build a shed for straw bedding for his livestock.

The planning application for the shed was objected to by an individual living 150 miles away, which stopped the progress of the project.

Mr Carroll said this was “absolutely shocking”. Other farmers have found their building costs gone up 15 -20% because of delays in securing planning permissions.

He said the delays incurred by these objections were costing the farmer, county council and the environment.

“An urgent solution needs to be found sooner rather than later,” he declared.
Inspections

The New Inn farmer also highlighted the stress and fear increasing farm inspections are placing on farmers, particularly on older farmers.

“Inspections are a big part of farming today and we see on the ground a greater number of county council inspections.

“We need and accept those inspections to deliver better water quality but with the average age of farmers at 59, we do not want to see farmers exiting farming rather than carrying out works to fix the problem. The fear of inspections cannot be underestimated.”

Farm schemes

Mr Carroll also drew councillors' attention to bureaucratic difficulties IFA members are facing with farm schemes and the Department of Agriculture.

He said there has been a “complete systems failure” on the farm investment grant scheme TAMS (Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme) with no approvals in all of 2023. This has delayed a lot of environment and health & safety investment on farms.

“Overly complicated schemes which have been poorly implemented by the Department of Agriculture have contributed to widespread delays in payments which has effected some farmers credit rating and with local merchants, contractors, and other businesses awaiting their accounts to be paid.”

He complained there are so many different schemes and they are so complicated that agricultural consultants have threatened strike action as they are at the end of their tether

Farmers hire agricultural consultants because the risk of doing something wrong is so high when applying for schemes and now everything is done online.

He cited an example of the implications a minor error can have on farmers. A farmer who made an application for Derogation in March was informed by letter in August that his documents weren’t right and he wasn’t granted derogation.

He had sent all the documents required for the application to his consultant. The problem was that one piece of documentation hadn’t uploaded properly to the Department.

When he contacted the Department, they said it wasn’t their problem, it was the problem of the farmer’s consultant.

Mr Carroll said the farmer is guilty until proven innocent in these cases. There is often no come back or investigation. This was the type of bureaucracy they were dealing with and it takes up huge IFA staff resources.

He also highlighted farmers’ difficulties with complying with the Tillage Three Crop Rule rule that requires tillage farmers to grow three crops. The exceptionally wet autumn of 2023 meant this hasn’t been possible for farmers.

Thanks to IFA lobbying, an exemption from having to comply with the Three Crop Rule was announced for farmers for 2024 two days after Mr Carroll’s presentation to the Council.

Mr Carroll said it was hard not to overstate the blunder that is not paying farmers their environmental payment while at the same time trying to convince them thye have a bright future in nature restoration.

North Tipperary IFA Chairman Baden Powell told the Council meeting that farmers in north Tipperary were as frustrated as those in south Tipperary. They felt the political system has been asleep and let the direction come from the EU.

He said farming has become top heavy with bureaucracy and so complicated that the consultants, who previously looked for this work, were now sick of it.

Mr Powell estimated that when the next CAP Convergence happens in 2027, about €30m in EU payments will leave county Tipperary and go across the Shannon. The money will be leaving the productive farmers.

He said farmers have always made nature a priority and continue to do so but he stressed it is “nourishment farmers need, not punishment”.

The IFA delegation’s presentation received overwhelming support from councillors gathered at the meeting and a motion resolving that the Council supports the IFA’s “Enough is Enough” campaign and recognises the “significant contribution” of farming and agri-sector to the Irish economy, was unanimously passed at the meeting.

The motion, tabled by Fine Gael Cllr Declan Burgess, also stated the Council acknowledged the income challenges on Irish farmers arising from the significant increases in the cost of doing business, regulatory costs, and cuts in the basic income support for farmers.

It directed the Council to call on the Government to introduce no further regulations on farmers or any measures that may increase costs on farms without the full negotiation and agreement with the Irish Farmers Association.

The motion also directed the Council to call on the European Union and the Irish Government to provide additional stand-alone funding, separate to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to support farmers to undertake climate and biodiversity measures.