Cllr Cillian Keane has called for the reform of government farming schemes, claiming that small farmers are being overwhelmed by bureaucracy and paperwork.
The Fianna Fáil by-election candidate for Galway West believes that schemes such as the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS ) "work on paper" but fail to reflect the realities faced by small farmers.
"TAMS works on paper, but in reality it is far too complicated for the small farm," said Cllr Keane.
"If I want to use a government scheme to modernise an older shed, I am faced with the need to get an engineer’s report, ensure compliance with planning or secure an exemption. For a smaller family farm going through this process, it is often simply not worth it."
Keane has stressed that if schemes were streamlined and simplified, they could reach more farmers and ensure that allocated funding is actually used. Only that way would allow these schemes to be "properly delivered" and "support small farmers in improving their farm facilities".
"If the scheme was simplified, you could extend it to more farmers, delivering for more people and ensuring the money is spent rather than sitting there unused and not helping those who need it.
The Fianna Fáil councillor said that the "small farmer out in Connemara" does not have the same time and resources as larger farmers. He believes government schemes need to be designed with those smaller farmers in mind.
"We have an awful lot of good schemes," he said, "The Sheep Welfare Scheme, the Suckler Cow Scheme, CRISS and BISS payments are all well intended and provide good support for farmers. However, they are not designed with the smaller farmer in the west of Ireland in mind, where inputs and outputs are smaller.
"These schemes need to be simplified in order for the farmer to justify using them," he concluded.
