EU agri and fisheries policies now an economic pincer movement on Ireland's lands and seas -Michael Collins

Leader of Independent Ireland Michael Collins has said there is now a “genuinely frightening sense that Irish agriculture and Ireland’s fishing communities will be pushed beyond the point of recovery as the impact of a raft of EU trade, fishing quota and climate change policies take full effect.”

The Cork South-West TD was speaking as controversy regarding the proposed adoption of the EU Commission's Mercosur trade deal continues to generate widespread alarm within the Irish beef sector.

His remarks also follow confirmation that Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has received a number of reports prepared by Teagasc relating to the next iteration of the Government's Nitrates Action Programme (NAP).

“I am of the firm view that we are now in a seriously perilous position with respect to the future of Irish agriculture and Irish fisheries; to a point that is virtually unprecedented since we first joined the common market.”

“We know that Mercosur will bring enormous adaptation challenges in terms of market instability and the undercutting of Irish beef supplies. But we also know that this is not happening in isolation. It is being driven forward at the same time as the historical imbalance in our fishing quotas is being embedded deeper with the EU’s approach; an approach that is almost psychopathically indifferent to the dire consequences it is generating for our fishing communities.”

“I look at this situation and then I look at the EU’s Climate Targets and Effort Sharing Regulation that continues to exert maximum pressure on Ireland to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 alongside our national commitments to a 51% reduction and I see a economic pincer movement that is targeting our interests on land and sea.”

“If we combine this level of destruction for our fisheries, with the impact of the EU Nature Restoration Law which is very likely to move away from a voluntary model toward a mandatory one alongside the far from guaranteed retention of the nitrates derogation, then I think there are plenty of grounds for real concern.”

“It has gotten to the point when I think that we could find more accommodating negotiation and outcome flexibility with the mafia than with the EU Commission.”

Concluding his remarks, Deputy Collins said, “I know that our farmers and our few remaining fishing boats are working 52 weeks of the year to enable their own survival, but there must come a point when the relentless onslaught of EU policies allied to weak ineffective pushback from our Government will push us to the point of no return. I and my party will work with everything we have to ensure that day will never arrive.”