Flat rate CAP payments will best sustain local economies, protect family farms and boost rural employment and are in Ireland's overall best interests An Taisce has said today.

The reality is that a flat rate is the single most important reform to help Ireland maintain population in peripheral counties such as Mayo, to protect and develop tourism across the West and North, and to help stem the tide of regional imbalance which almost washed Ireland to the east in the Celtic Tiger years.

The true leaders of Ireland's land struggle, from Davitt and Parnell to Healy, would take an extremely dim view of the very narrow interests currently being pursued by ‘Big Agriculture’. It will be a sad day if Ireland's Minister for Agriculture does not go to Brussels with the aim of delivering flat payments.

The flat rate delivers the best outcome for the economy and the environment, and so best serves our society as a whole, the National Trust said today, in a statement issued to coincide with the growing debate over how CAP payments are best structured, with An Taisce adding that it is inadequate to look at output alone, especially when no Strategic Environmental Assessment has been carried out to see if Harvest 2020 can be achieved and at what cost to the environment.

ENDS

For further information, please call:

Charles Stanley-Smith, An Taisce Communications - Tel: 087 2411995