CAP Cuts

However much smaller the eventual CAP budget ends up being, who gets what proportion of it is entirely in the gift of the Minister for Agriculture. We ask Martin Heydon what guarantees he can give farmers, and we speak to him about the stalled cuts in farming emissions.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Land Agent Mike Brady has a great view of what way money is actually spent in the rural economy and how subsidy payment changes impact. He sees an irresistible push in the direction of farms consolidating and scaling up that will be accelerated by the new CAP. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part Time Mayo Sheep farmer Tony O'Donnell would be typical of many in the west of the country. His farm business is almost wholly dependent on subsidy, but in turn he is delivering environmental improvement. He tell us what the impact to the agri-environment scheme payments he receives would be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the outgoing CAP Pillar I payments were basic farm subsidies. Pillar II were for rural development and environmental improvement. The next CAP will roll the two up together and apply a cut as high as 24%. Many fear the Pillar II will lose out. Dr Emma Dillon from the Teagasc National Farm Survey tells us about which farms depend on Pillar II payments most. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seamus Boland is the President of the European Economic and Social Council, and a part time beef farmer. He makes the argument for maintaining the Pillar II payments as they are. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forest School Leader Laura Kennedy on getting kids out of the classroom and living life by the Celtic Calendar.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of Waterford City and County cemeteries manger, Paul Flynn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If a sustainable life is possible, might it also be possible to die a sustainable death. Rachel Breslin talks to Green Coffins owner, Colin McAteer, in Fanad, Co Donegal. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the day when the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest crows and ravens passed freely between the realms. Roger O'Reilly, author of Birds Of Ireland: Symbolism, Myth and Folklore on why we continue to believe there is something sinister about corvids.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most pumpkin farms were badly hit by the summer drought, except (eerily) Tom Dillon's farm at the foot of the hill where Samhain was invented. He enjoyed a climate beating, bumper year for his 30,000 pumpkins. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.