A candidate in the European Parliament Ireland South electoral area, which includes Kerry, has accused Fine Gael MEPs and Taoiseach Simon Harris of singing from the food "processors’ hymnbook".
Councillor Lorna Bogue, leader of An Rabharta Glas says ““Agricultural policy in Ireland is being driven by corporate processors and exporters, and [that] the IFA is complicit in creating unsustainable market conditions for small farmers".
Cllr Bogue also says that "small farmers are expected to take on more economic risk for higher production or be pushed out of the market".
She says "dairy production has already doubled in a decade [in Ireland South]" and that "on both the nitrates derogation and the question of dairy reduction/exit, small farmers are expected to take on more economic risk for higher production or be pushed out of the market".
Cllr Bogue was speaking following Taoiseach Simon Harris’s comments at the EPP agriculture conference in Carlow today 19th April.
