With all the main political parties having now published their manifestos, Donegal T.D. and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue pointed to the higher levels of support, for the agricultural sector, proposed by his party Fianna Fáil.
Minister McConalogue said:
Fianna Fáil was the first party in this general election to publish our manifesto. We published early as we wanted to fight this campaign on the relevant issues and, we wanted to be really clear about what we will do in government if we get the support of the electorate on Election Day.
Pointing to his track record over the last four and a half years, McConalogue said:
“Fianna Fáil sought the agricultural portfolio so that we could make a real difference for farmers. We have delivered very strongly on the manifesto we set out in 2020 and during that time, we have delivered for all of our sectors.
“I've delivered support for sheep; increasing payments from €10 to €25. I promised €200 for the suckler cow and delivered €225. We've increased funding for the tillage sector from €3 million euro to €50 million and for the dairy sector, we fought hard and will continue the fight for the Nitrates Derogation. We also introduced a new dairy beef scheme paying €40 per calf that is benefitting both the dairy and beef industries.
“Our manifesto lays out our commitments to the agricultural sector for the next five years. We've laid out how we'll take the payments for the suckler cow to €350, the ewe payment to €35, how we will invest €60 million every year in the development of our tillage sector and how we will deliver €100 per dairy beef calf. We are also explicit in our support for the continuation of our Nitrates Derogation.”
With the last of the manifestos now published, McConalogue said:
“Quite simply, the manifestos of the other parties do not match our ambition for the farming sector.
“Fianna Fáil are backing farmers with significantly more direct income support than Fine Gael. In our manifesto, we are committing to three times as much in new spending commitments for agriculture than Fine Gael list in their manifesto. FF are committing to €278m in new current expenditure measures for the Department of Agriculture compared to €87m by Fine Gael.”
“Sinn Fein have again flip flopped on the hugely important issue of the retention of the Nitrates Derogation with the party omitting any reference to this crucial piece of legislation in their manifesto. When you couple that with incoherent financing - using different costings in different parts of their document – it is clear that Sinn Fein don't take farming and rural Ireland seriously.”
Minister McConalogue concluded saying:
“Fianna Fáil is offering major support for farmers in our detailed and comprehensive plan. Over the next ten days, we will continue to put our message to the people, and on Election Day, we're asking for your support to continue to back farming in the next government.”
ENDS