The amount of regulation imposed on farmers needs to be streamlined to avoid further frustration, Ireland’s outgoing Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has said.

“We need regulation, we need standards, but we shouldn’t impose on farms or companies extra that doesn’t make a difference.

“So we have to streamline what is being asked for, because otherwise it will lead to increased frustration,” she said.

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships, Commissioner McGuinness added that there needs to be joined-up thinking from all sides on what farmers are being asked to do.

“The supermarkets have been doing this anyway [setting standard for farmers], regardless of what state agencies have been doing, and sometimes they drive the change.

“We should be in sync with that, rather than have two different sets of standards, which is also frustrating,” she said.

Reporting requirements

Speaking on the same panel at the Enterprise Ireland stand, professor Karina Pierce of University College Dublin’s school of agriculture said companies' reporting requirements should not be pushed down to farm level, “so we’re not duplicating what farmers have to do”.

“We have to continue to prove our credentials, but we don’t want farmers having to prove that in multiple different ways to multiple different companies,” she added.