Politicians get €250,000 in EU farm payments while in office

[mmrebel]

AT least 10 TDs and senators received a total of more than €250,000 in CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) payments from the European Union last year while working as public representatives.

Details of the payments published on the Department of Agriculture's website show that Fianna Fail TD Ned O'Keeffe topped the list having received €75, 841 in payments last year.

Mr O'Keeffe, one of the country's largest pig farmers, was paid more than €53,000 under the Single Farm Payment scheme, with the remainder paid under a non-direct fund which covers market intervention and export refunds.

Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes received €47,602, the bulk of which was paid under the Single Farm Payment scheme. The remainder paid to the TD from Golden in Co Tipperary was under the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS).

Other Oireachtas members to feature on the list include Galway Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton (€30,168), his Tipperary colleague Noel Coonan (€20,500), and Fine Gael Monaghan TD Seymour Crawford (€26,000).

Cork Fianna Fail Senator Peter Callanan topped the Upper House members on the list, receiving almost €17,000 in Single Farm and REPS payments. Several councillors also feature on the list, including Kerry Cllr Danny Healy Rae, son of Independent TD Jackie Healy Rae. Cllr Healy Rae and his wife collectively claimed almost €34,000.

Politicians get €250,000 in EU farm payments while in office - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

look im tired im cranky and the more i read amount politicans finances when they are handing out food parcels around the country to be honest i just despair .

[HighInBandon]

Agreed!

I'm also tired and cranky and sick to death of reading stories like this.

There were politicians canvassing in my estate yesterday and I was so tempted to bring out the rotten eggs.

What's so annoying is that the opposition are as bad as the government. The greed and the corruption is sickening.

[bluefish]

Why do you think they want us to vote Yes to Lisbon?

Most likely they have been told, a No vote will end the gravy train.

Now we know why there is cross party support from FF, FG, and Labour.

Shysters the lot of them. They should all be rounded up and ...../

[candi]

With the elections coming up now is your chance to make a change.
Also put up a poster outside your home detailing the parties that are not allowed to come to your door.
You are now standing up and being counted

[odie1kanobe]

Are they entitled to the payments in the same way as every other farmer based on control procedures laid down by Dept of Agriculture ?

If answer is Yes then what is the issue.

[An Ordinary Man]

As I have said before these agricultural payments are not wages, farming costs need to be paid out of these payments. These men are from farming backgrounds and just because they win a seat in the dail doesn't mean that they should sell up the farm! Chances are if these td's and senators are representing their people correctly they are doing very little farming themselves and therefore must have staff working for them. By the way I don't agree with any farmer getting payments from europe - I would much rather see farmers getting paid the proper value of the top quality product that they produce and not the prices that they are getting at the moment. Cattle were getting a better price back in the 1970's! Also when a KG of beef, lamb or pork or a litre of milk leaves the farm it does not get even close to the price that the consumer pays the retailer. Therefore I think it is not the fact that these men are getting these payments but why all Irish farmers are getting them. Also I think that REPS and the WMS are different as they are payments for work carried out to satisy european directives.

[lostexpectation]

what are they supposed to use the money for?

[dalywise]

Agreed!

I'm also tired and cranky and sick to death of reading stories like this.

There were politicians canvassing in my estate yesterday and I was so tempted to bring out the rotten eggs.

What's so annoying is that the opposition are as bad as the government. The greed and the corruption is sickening.

This attitude is exactly the reason wht we will never change. We don't know if they're all the same because Fianna Fail has had a monopoly on power for 20 years. Their cronies are everywhere. The place and system is screaming out for a change of culture and if we just say that they're all the same, we'll be stuck with the system forever. The Americans decied that they were not all the same last year and went out in record numbers to root out the corrupt cronies that they had put up with for 8 years. We now need to go and get rid of Fianna Fail cronies once and for all and follow it up with a de-FiannaFailification exercise to rid the country of them forever.

[Cael]

As I have said before these agricultural payments are not wages, farming costs need to be paid out of these payments. These men are from farming backgrounds and just because they win a seat in the dail doesn't mean that they should sell up the farm! Chances are if these td's and senators are representing their people correctly they are doing very little farming themselves and therefore must have staff working for them. By the way I don't agree with any farmer getting payments from europe - I would much rather see farmers getting paid the proper value of the top quality product that they produce and not the prices that they are getting at the moment. Cattle were getting a better price back in the 1970's! Also when a KG of beef, lamb or pork or a litre of milk leaves the farm it does not get even close to the price that the consumer pays the retailer. Therefore I think it is not the fact that these men are getting these payments but why all Irish farmers are getting them. Also I think that REPS and the WMS are different as they are payments for work carried out to satisy european directives.

Is that why farmers have used this dole money to buy property all over Europe?

[crocked]

With the elections coming up now is your chance to make a change.
Also put up a poster outside your home detailing the parties that are not allowed to come to your door.
You are now standing up and being counted

If, and i use the term loosely, if we want real change, it needs to be drastic...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rzd8GX6Pqw]YouTube - Resource Based Economy - The Solution for the Monetary System Collapse[/ame]