DAERA Proposals Could Damage Small Farms and Rural Planning – Hughes

Sinn Féin’s Dáire Hughes has said that small farmers and rural communities could be negatively impacted if DAERA persists with their plans to increase the minimum farm claim size from the current 3 hectares to 5 hectares.  

Newry and Armagh Westminster candidate DáireHughes said:

“DAERA is proposing to increase the minimum claim size for the new Farm Sustainability Payment from the current 3 hectares (7.4 acres) to 5 hectares (12.3 acres). 

This is bad news for 1491 small farms across the north which would not be eligible for the new payment, which is the successor to the Single Farm Payment. It would put many of them out of business”.

The Sinn Féin candidate continued,

“In County Armagh this would impact on 267 small farms, which is 8% of all farms in the county. Almost 1 in 10 local farms would be negatively affected

This is bad news and a direct consequence of the disastrous decision to exit the EU which led to the loss of millions of pounds of EU funding, on top of the many other challenges that farmers face, such as the rising rate of bTB and climate change”.

Dáire warned,

“If the department proceeds with this it would be devastating for these farmers, their families, the local economy and rural way of life”.

“In most cases, the only option to secure planning permission in rural areas is access to an active farm business number.  If these farms went out of business, it would have a severe impact on young families wanting to set up home in the country. 

This is essential for rural sustainability and the future of local schools, sports clubs and local services”.

Dáire concluded,

“Sinn Féin has strongly resisted the proposal to increase the minimum claim size from 3ha to 5ha and has secured the unanimous support of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee (AERA) to press the department to stick to the 3-hectare farm size which is also in line with the rest of Ireland and the EU.  

I welcome the fact that the Minister appears to be in listening mode and has agreed to include this issue on the agenda when he meets the AERA committee in July.”

Ends