Irish beef farmers will be compensated for losses caused by Brexit, the European Commission has confirmed.
The Commission is set to provide an exceptional aid fund of €50million for struggling farmers who saw their beef prices plummet.
Our Government also has the option of doubling the fund to bring the total to €100 million in financial aid.
Britain’s decision to leave the European Union affected market stability, beef prices and the value of the pound, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association.
The creation of the fund comes just a week after plans for the roll out of a rural broadband scheme were announced.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan, told RTE on Thursday that he expected the Government to top up the fund to compensate beef farmers.
Half of Irish people say they would consider going vegan for environmental reasons
He said that the details of how the process will work would now be finalised between his department and the Department of Agriculture.
Mr Hogan denied that there was a link between the announcement and the upcoming elections - adding that there are always multiple elections going on at EU level.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also said plans were not influenced by the upcoming local and European elections.
He said: “If we could have got it over the line a few weeks ago, we would have been very happy with that.”
The Taoiseach said that he was aware that beef prices were very low with production costs now exceeding profit and said he expected farmers to benefit from the fund within months.
Farmers infuriated by Mr Varadkar’s claim he was cutting down on meat greeted him with cries of “Where’s the beef, you vegan” in a protest outside Cork City Hall earlier this month.
