Farm leaders opposed publication of €2bn Cap list

FARM LEADERS who campaigned against disclosure of names of those who shared more than €2 billion in EU Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) payments, played down the significance of the data yesterday.

Names, home towns and details of the amounts paid by the EU to Irish farmers were disclosed on the Department of Agriculture’s website on Thursday night – the latest possible for publication under an EU ruling.

While the information showed 550 farmers and companies received amounts in excess of €100,000 in 2008, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said the average payment to farmers was between €12,000 and €14,000.

The organisation said the largest payment on the list, in excess of €83 million to Greencore group plc, was a once-off payment due in relation to the exiting of the sugar business.

The Irish Dairy Board was in second place with a payment of more than €6.5 million, which a spokeswoman said reflected outstanding export subsidy for dairy board-branded goods, predating 2008.

A spokesman for the IFA said the association had asked the Minister to refuse to publish the details, at least until the resolution of the position in Germany in relation to the EU ruling. There was, he said, a question of privacy. “Is it fair that everyone should know your income,” he asked.

The European Commission has criticised Germany for refusing to reveal details on EU farm payments and is threatening court action to force it to comply with new transparency rules, writes Jamie Smyth, in Brussels.

Germany is the only EU state which has failed to meet the May 1st deadline for publication.

German farmers and food companies receive almost €7 billion from the EU’s €55 billion annual Cap budget.

German farm minister Ilse Aigner told The Irish Times legal concerns raised by court rulings taken by farmers in Germany over data protection was the reason why the relevant information was not being published immediately.

She denied she was blocking publication of the EU farm payments until after the European elections in June as a way to reach out for farmers’ votes.

Details released on who gets what from the Cap show that some of the biggest beneficiaries of EU funds are big companies such as the Irish company Greencore and big landowners like the British royal family.