People increasingly pessimistic about return to pre-pandemic normality – CSO independent.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independent.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BREXIT AND THE BORDER
The October 31 deadline is fast approaching and yet we seem to be as far as ever from agreeing on a deal for Brexit.
The question of the Irish border continues to be a bone of contention between the Irish and British governments, and in recent weeks, Tánaiste Simon Coveney has described British proposals to solve the issue as “fanciful.”
In a speech that the second most senior person in the Irish government gave at a breakfast hosted by the Irish Consulate in New York, he expressed frustration that
Ireland was spending “hundreds of millions” to prepare for Brexit, which he described as a “problem that is not of our making and that we disagree with.”
The €10m straw incorporation scheme is dividing opinion among those affected.
While tillage farmers are welcoming the scheme, livestock farmers, mushroom growers and compost manufacturers and farm contractors are all predicting negative effects for their sectors.
While the details of the scheme have yet to be finalised, its shape is becoming clear. Firstly, as reported last week, farmers will receive €250/ha to chop and incorporate their straw. Farmers will apply by nominating plots of land containing cereal crops for the scheme as part of their BPS application.
Application must be on a whole-plot basis, but farmers who wish to chop part of a field, for instance the headlands, can do so by sub-dividing an existing plot.