Fianna Fáil TD for Cavan-Monaghan and European Parliament candidate for Midlands-North-West Brendan Smith has called on the government to take positive action to support farming communities across the Midlands-North-West.

Deputy Smith explained, “The beef sector and suckler farmers are at their wits end. I have been across the region and one of the main concerns raised by members of the farming community is their future. They feel abandoned by government with totally inadequate supports being provided to the community.

“Working with our Agriculture spokesperson, Charlie McConalogue TD, we passed a private members’ motion with 14 policy actions in the Dáil last month to highlight the urgent actions needed to safeguard the livelihoods of farmers in the beef sector.  This included immediately requesting Brexit mitigation funding for farmers, specifically exceptional and market disturbance aid for beef and other vulnerable sectors under CAP’s Common Market Organisation Regulation.

“Beef farmers have incurred severe losses since last Autumn and require direct EU and State assistance now. The IFA has estimated that beef farmers have already incurred price losses approaching over €100 million as the impact of Brexit has hit.

“The final say on the next round of CAP will be decided by the next European Parliament. We are committed to the reform of CAP and provision of adequate funding for our farmers.

“The government cannot continue to ignore farmers across the country. They are crying out for supports and they must be provided with such supports,” concluded Deputy Brendan Smith.