At a meeting with the new EU Agriculture Commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, in Brussels this afternoon, IFA president John Bryan highlighted the importance of the Single Farm Payment (SFP) to Irish farmers and the pivotal role it plays in supporting the production of high quality food in an environmentally sustainable way.
John Bryan said he had informed Commissioner Ciolos farm incomes in Ireland were at an historically low level, and the maintenance of the SFP in its current structure, targeted at active farmers, was critical to the survival of Irish farm families.
The Single Farm payment was worth €1.6 billion to Irish farmers last year and is based on an average of the grants they received in headage and other payments in the first three years of this decade.