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Latest Farming News New Sheep Maintenance Payment | New Sheep Maintenance Payment |
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| Written by Donald Cronin | |
| Wednesday, 23 April 2008 | |
 IFA National Sheep Chairman, Mr Henry Burns has welcomed Liam Aylward’s report, saying that he had taken on board the proposals put forward by the IFA National Sheep Committee. “Liam Aylward makes it very clear in his report that the sheep sector is in critical decline and there is a mass exodus of producers. He calls for urgent action to be taken by the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers to halt the decline and calls for additional finance support as a matter of urgency to retain a critical mass of sheep production.” Mr Burns said he worked closely with Liam Aylward on this report. Mr Burns said IFA proposed a new sheep maintenance payment focused on the positive environmental attributes associated with sheep production and Liam Aylward had made this the key proposal in his report. The IFA National Sheep Chairman also welcomed the recommendation to introduce an additional payment for traditional mountainous breeds to preserve sheep in sensitive areas. Liam said the Aylward report on sheep had made a number of additional recommendations on promotion, labelling, pricing, WTO and innovation. Liam Aylward has proposed: 1. A review of the introduction of electronic identification and a move to a voluntary basis. 2. A reduction in the scale of tariff cuts for sheep meat in WTO and the option of sensitive product status. 3. Mandatory EU labelling with an EU logo and country of origin induction. 4. Ring fenced funding for EU lamb promotion. 5. Price transparency through the monthly publication of retail, wholesale, processor and producer prices on the internet. 6. 14 days notice to livestock farmers for on-farm cross compliance inspections as part of the CAP Health Check. Mr Henry Burns called on the Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan to fully support the recommendations for the sheep sector in the Aylward report. Henry said that in conjunction with the EU, it is up to Minister Coughlan to act on the recommendations and put in place the necessary resources to implement the proposals. Mr Burns said Minister Coughlan must act urgently or otherwise it would be too late for thousands of Irish sheep farmers and a sector that is worth over €500m annually to the Irish economy.      |
