Republic's poultry aid and Stormont under challenge
01 August 2009
Following the announcement of €16million aid from the Dublin Government to poultry producers in the Republic, for the purpose of meeting new EU production welfare standards, TUV Leader Jim Allister has questioned what DARD is doing to help the local producers and questions the compliance of the Republic’s unilateral announcement with EU state aid rules.
In 2012 the EU Laying Hens Directive will ban the use of the traditional caged system and impose what is termed an ‘enriched cage system’, something which Mr Allister was opposing while an MEP. The cost of the change over on the producers will be immense, running into millions of pounds. Now, the Republic’s Minister has announced €16million state aid for his producers.
In a statement Mr Allister said:-
“The fact that the Republic, in its parlous economic state, can find €16 m for the Republic’s poultry farmers, while Minister Gildernew sits on her hands and wastes scarce Rural Development money on tangential community spend, highlights, again, the failure of the Executive to deliver for the real needs of agriculture in Northern Ireland.
The change being imposed in 2012 on the hen laying sector is exorbitantly expensive. Many producers will struggle to survive. DARD offers nothing and now we find producers in the Republic are to get the competitive advantage of a huge hand-out. I believe our MEPs should be challenging with
I acknowledge that in contrast to DARD and our local Executive, the Republic put together a far more adventurous and useful rural development package, with a strong focus on helping productive on-farm investment, but, nonetheless, their spend must not breach state aid rules. This outworking of direct aid to poultry producers, which inevitably makes them more competitive, must, therefore, be questioned.
But, still the question remains why has DARD not had the priority to so help our productive sector. Rural crèches have their place, but not ahead of sustaining actual farm production. Minister Gildernew botched the Rural Development allocations when she gave priority to Axis 3 and sidelined Axis 1. The whole Executive, and ever party in it, bears responsibility, because they failed to call in and challenge her decision. Now, with a dearth of spend on productive on-farm investment, we are paying the price.”
