There are growing concerns that farm schemes worth over €750m/year to farmers could be scrapped in the next CAP.

Farm organisations have sounded the alarm bell that the schemes, funded under pillar two of the CAP, could face the chop on the back of EU plans to merge farmer funding into a single EU-wide budget.

The schemes at risk include the ANC, which is worth €250m per annum, ACRES, suckler and sheep schemes and TAMS.

However, pillar one funding, which is worth approximately €5.97bn to Irish farmers and funds schemes such as the BISS, eco scheme, front-loading and the young farmer scheme, is not believed to be under threat.

On Tuesday, the IFA and ICOS held a protest outside the European Commission offices in Dublin, with IFA deputy president Alice Doyle firing a warning shot at officials to keep their “hands off the CAP budget”.

Protest action also took place in Brussels with EU farm organisations demanding that funds remain ring-fenced for the CAP in order to guarantee food security.

The European Commission is set to outline its plan for the next CAP in mid-July.