{"id":42100,"date":"2026-06-18T00:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/06\/18\/cap-funding-for-farmers-among-priorities-for-presidency\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T00:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:22:45","slug":"cap-funding-for-farmers-among-priorities-for-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/06\/18\/cap-funding-for-farmers-among-priorities-for-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"CAP funding for farmers among ‘priorities’ for presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of Ireland’s “central priorities” during the country’s European Union (EU) presidency will be to progress discussions on the future of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding for farmers, the Agriculture Minister has said.<\/p>\n

However, Martin Heydon has also made clear that Ireland’s role with the bloc’s presidency from next month will be as an “honest broker” and that the country will not be negotiating “on the basis of a national position or national priorities”.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an agriculture and fisheries stakeholder event, Minister Heydon said CAP reforms “must preserve the policy\u2019s ability to contribute to food security, secure farm incomes, and support rural resilience with predictability and fairness”.<\/p>\n

It comes as the European Commission has proposed changes to the current CAP that would see ringfenced funding for farming across the EU cut by more than a fifth, with supports for agriculture merged with those for rural areas into a single fund.<\/p>\n

This would mean a fall in guaranteed CAP funding from \u20ac387 billion down to around \u20ac300 billion over the course of the next EU budget cycle from 2028.<\/p>\n

Farming groups here have warned such a drop would decimate a huge number of Irish farms.<\/p>\n

The Commission’s proposals also suggest member states should exclude farmers in receipt of the state pension from direct payments by 2032.<\/p>\n

This could have a significant impact on Irish farmers in the coming years, with the average age of an Irish farmer nearing 60.<\/p>\n

In addition, the proposals say EU CAP funds “should be focused on active farmers”, meaning supports would be “targeted towards farmers who exercise agriculture as a principal activity”.<\/p>\n

However, the definition of an active farmer is proving controversial.<\/p>\n

In Ireland for example, many farmers outside of dairy supplement their farm incomes with off-farm jobs to make their operations viable.<\/p>\n

The Irish Farmers\u2019 Association (IFA) has said “all active farmers must be supported in the next CAP” and that “agricultural activity must be the decisive criterion – not age, means, farm type\/size, or full\/part-time status”.<\/p>\n

In its CAP policy document, the IFA adds that “all measures in the next CAP must increase and strengthen farm incomes and be measured against same”.<\/p>\n

Minister Heydon has made clear that with Ireland assuming the EU Presidency, it is “no longer negotiating with others on the basis of a national position or national priorities”.<\/p>\n

“Instead, in our role as honest broker, the Irish Presidency will seek to advance negotiations on the EU budget and on the CAP in a way that protects the interests of the EU, and strikes the required balance between the differing views of all Member States,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Ireland’s “central priorities” during the country’s European Union (EU) presidency will be to progress discussions on the future of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding for farmers, the Agriculture Minister has said. However, Martin Heydon has also made clear that Ireland’s role with the bloc’s presidency from next month will be as an “honest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}