Macra is calling on the Minister for Agriculture Charlie Mc Conalogue to clarify his plans to address “the forgotten farmer” issue and to honour his promise that these farmers receive the support that they have missed out on.  

The “Forgotten Farmers” are a group of farmers who lost out following the removal of young farmer supports such as Installation Aid due to cuts in public expenditure by the Government following the last recession. 

Macra National President Elaine Houlihan said ‘it is now nearly sixteen years since some of these farmers started out in their farming careers, and it is simply not good enough that the mistakes around the removal of CAP supports have not been rectified.

She insists that they had received assurances from the Minister back in October 2022 at their national conference and again at the 2023 conference that the ‘Forgotten Farmers’ issue will not be left unresolved and that a scheme was forthcoming. However, she says “we still await that scheme.”

Chair of Macra’s Agricultural Affairs committee Liam Hanrahan says now the Minister needs to deliver on his promise.