ICMSA say new EU Deforestation Regulations “make a mockery” out of much-hyped ‘Simplification’ process

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee, Michael O’Connell, has said that the EU Commission will have zero credibility with farmers on their much-hyped ‘Simplification Process’ matters if they proceed with the EU Deforestation Regulations as currently structured.

Mr O’Connell noted that it was yet another example of section of the Commission telling farmers they are going to simplify matters, while another side of the Commission enthusiastically drives forward with new regulations scheduled for introduction on 1 January 2026 that are, in Mr O’Connell’s words, “illogical, dizzyingly complex, make no sense and place an unacceptable burden on farmers”.

Mr O’Connell said it was surely not too much to ask the Commission to decide ‘one way or the other’ what they were trying to do. He said that the new level of administration and form-filling involved in the Deforestation Regulations made a mockery of the so-called ‘Simplification’ process.

“The vast majority of farmland in Ireland has been declared on the BISS system all the way back to 1994, so there’s over 30 years of records along with an inspection regime that means the Department has excellent data on every parcel of land and its usage.

What the EU Deforestation Regulations will involve is effectively to ignore all this data and implement a new regime where farmers will have to declare annually where their cattle are grazing or their feed is coming? What about the information that we’ve been giving them for the last 30 years? Why can’t they use that? We’re being asked to ‘start from scratch’ again and comply with yet another additional administration system; a whole new regulatory regime that will almost certainly cause serious problems when introduced and which ultimately will not achieve its objective”, said Mr O’Connell.

The ICMSA Committee Chairperson observed that almost every farmer in the country will have submitted an BISS application for 2025 before the closing date of 15 May setting out the parcels of land they are farming for 2025. He said that given that the Department now has this data in the system and with a view to the EUDR requirements, ICMSA is proposing that the EU should allow the Department to utilise this data and simply pre-approve or reject farmers under EUDR for 2026.

“The have the data and it is simply a case of verifying it. There should be absolutely no requirement on pre-approved farmers to submit documentation or otherwise and the produce from their farms should be marketed as normal. Such a system applied across all sources of EU food would meet the requirements of EUDR in a through but cost-efficient effective manner and ICMSA cannot understand the logic of the EU Commission of introducing a ridiculously complex system on top of the system that’s already giving them the data they need to make the decisions”, he said.

Mr O’Connell concluded by asking the Commission to “for once” take the obvious and workable option and save farmers, time money and stress.