The Agriculture Minister says he disagrees with claims the government has ‘let farmers down’.
The claim was made by the Irish Farmer’s Association President, Laois man, Francie Gorman at its AGM yesterday.
He told the meeting that farmers’ livelihoods are ‘under threat’, and believes there has been an ‘abject failure’ by the government in relation to delayed payments from schemes.
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue believes the government has worked hard to help farmers; “I’ve never yet heard a representative organisation say to a Minister or say to the Government ‘that’s okay you’re doing enough now, you can go a bit easier’, it will always be the case that they’ll be putting it up to us and rightly so, that’s their role, but I think any fair assessment will show that both I as a Minister and this Government have worked massively hard and have delivered for farmers, for the agricultural sector and for farm families”.
