Latest news with #ICMSA
Agriland
2 days ago
- Business
- Agriland
ICMSA calls for €1,000 student fee reduction to be retained
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has called for a reduction of €1,000 in the student contribution fee to be retained in Budget 2026. The student contribution fee has been charged at a reduced rate for the last number of years and was originally announced in Budget 2023 as part a response to the escalating cost of living. The €1,000 reduction has been continued at each subsequent budget. However, according to the Citizens Information website, the maximum rate of the student contribution fee for the coming academic year (2025-2026) will be €3,000, the rate it stood at before the reduction was introduced. Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless has also indicated in media interviews in recent days that the fee reduction will not continue in Budget 2026. Responding to this, the ICSMA has expressed 'serious concerns' about the impact on farm families and students. Pat O'Brien, the chairperson of the ICMSA Farm Businesses Committee, said: 'The government suggested before the last election that further education would become more affordable. 'Many families voted for this government with that in mind. 'How have the tables turned so completely? Now we're facing even higher costs to send our kids to college,' O'Brien said. The ICMSA said that the €1,000 fee reduction was introduced as part of Budget 2023 to 'alleviate the cost-of-living' crisis. However, the farm organisation cited the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising 7.4% from the time of that announcement to May of this year. According to O'Brien, removing the fee reduction now 'would place additional strain on families already grappling with soaring expenses'. 'Reducing student contribution fees is actually written into the Programme for Government. There's a clear contradiction here if you ask me. Rent for student accommodation is astronomical,' he said. O'Brien added: 'Families can easily spend upwards of €8,000 a year on college accommodation alone. 'If you're sending more than one child to college, the financial pressure is immense and everyone should have the opportunity to attend further education.' The ICMSA is calling on the government to ensure that the €1,000 student fee reduction is part of the next budget, and to consider increasing the reduction.
Extra.ie
6 days ago
- Business
- Extra.ie
Furious farmers back EU-wide ban on plant-based products 'hijacking' meat terminology
Furious farmers have shared their support for an EU-wide ban on vegetarian and vegan food producers using meat-related words to sell their products New rules are currently under draft by the European Commission which would result in the food producers being banned from using words such as sausage and burger to 'camouflage' their products. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), who represent farmers locally and internationally, have said they welcome the new restrictions under review. Furious farmers have shared their support for an EU-wide ban which on vegetarian and vegan food producers using meat-related words to sell their products. Pic: Getty Images President Denis Drennan said the use of meat terminology to market veggie foods was 'deliberate and cynical and must constitute a breach of any trade descriptions act as commonly understood.' Mr Drennan said the terms were being 'hijacked' in an attempt to 'camouflage' non-meat products. He said while 'people are free to eat whatever they want,' farmers are 'irritated' by the fact that those trying to 'replace naturally produced meat and dairy' are using words 'generally understood to refer to' those products. He said while 'people are free to eat whatever they want,' farmers are 'irritated' of the fact that those trying to 'replace naturally produced meat and dairy' are using words 'generally understood to refer to' those products. Pic: Getty Images 'Rather than come up with their own terms and descriptions, they simply appropriate the names of the very good they're trying to replace and supplant,' Mr Drennan said, 'It's unbelievably cynical.' Mr Drennan added that it was confirmation from corporations that 'they know they're unable to convince consumers by their own efforts or merits.' The ICMSA President added: 'The fact that they're being allowed to 'camouflage' and take advantage of people's understanding is wrong and will have to be addressed.' It comes as French MEP Céline Imart proposed an amendment which banned plant-based products from being labelled with a long list of terms typically linked to animal products. The European Court of Justice has already ruled that non-dairy products cannot be described as milk and cheese.
Agriland
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Agriland
12 EU member states want animal-sourced food names protected
12 EU member states have supported a call for the European Commission to introduce protections on traditional animal-sourced food names so they cannot be used on plant-based food labels. The delegation from the Czech Republic presented a paper on the issue at a meeting of agriculture ministers in the Council of the EU this week. The Czech paper was supported by 11 other member states, including Ireland. The document said that the food market in the EU is increasingly composed of products that consist only of plant-based ingredients and are similar in appearance, taste and consistency to products of animal origin. These plant-based foods are very often labelled with the names belonging to meat, eggs, honey, fish, and products made from them. However, the paper said that plant-based products differ substantially from food products of animal origin, particularly in terms of composition and nutritional value. The Czech submission said that it is 'essential' that foods which imitate, mimic or substitute foods of animal origin do not mislead the consumer by their labelling as to their true nature. Protection of names is already in place for products for the dairy sector. However, no other protection of food names is in place at EU level for other animal-sourced products, and some member states are considering the introduction of reserved names for other food of animal origin at national level. The member states involved in the paper are calling for 'harmonisation of legal protection' to be provided on food names. They are seeking a legislative proposal from the commission to protect the names of animal origin, providing them with similar protection that already exists for milk and dairy products. The pressure on the commission to protect names of animal-sourced food has been welcomed by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA). ICMSA president Denis Drennan claimed that the inclusion of terms such a 'sausage' or 'burger' in vegetarian or vegan foods 'was deliberate and cynical'. He said that the 'hijakcing' of traditional meat and dairy terms 'actually constitutes an admissions by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such camouflage'. 'Obviously, people are free to eat whatever they want but it is a matter of considerable irritation to farmers to see the very people and corporations who want to replace our naturally produced meat and dairy with their own non-meat and non-dairy products very deliberately using the terms that they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and meat products,' Drennan said. 'They want to use our terminology and the acceptance borne of centuries that those terms have amongst the general public to effectively smuggle their own products past a sceptical public.' The ICMSA president said it is 'no longer tenable to allow non-dairy and non-meat products to advertise and promote themselves using terms and language associated with the traditional foods these vegetarian and vegan products are attempting to supplant'. 'It's self-evidently wrong that products that contain not a trace of meat are being sold as 'sausage' or 'burger' and being marketed in this disingenuous way. These corporations…are quite deliberately playing on people's desire for healthy, traditional, meat-based foodstuffs while actually substituting real meal ingredients with cheaper and more processed vegetable and plant-derived elements,' Drennan said.
Irish Times
25-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘Unbelievably cynical': farmers accuse vegan food producers of ‘hijacking' sausage and burger labels
Irish farmers have welcomed tentative moves by the European Parliament to restrict 'cynical' vegetarian and vegan food producers from using words such as sausage, burger and schnitzel to sell their products. The European Commission is drafting new rules covering EU-wide agriculture and MEPs are using the overhaul to lobby for changes to how vegetarian and vegan products are sold to customers. The 'hijacking' of traditional farming terms was 'deliberate and cynical' and could constitute 'a breach of any trade descriptions Act', said Irish Creamery and Milk Supplier's Association (ICMSA) president Denis Drennan. French MEP Céline Imart is proposing an amendment banning plant-based products being labelled with a long list of terms linked to animal products. READ MORE It is the latest salvo in the long-running battle involving farmers, their representatives, the commission and vegetarian food producers. The differing perspectives have also been aired at the European Court of Justice, which has ruled that plant-based foods can use terms traditionally associated with meat once consumers are not misled. [ Flip Burger takeaway review: are these the best veggie burgers in Dublin? Opens in new window ] The court has also ruled that non-dairy products cannot be described as milk and cheese. Farmers have continued to fight for the naming rights to certain products. Mr Drennan said the 'hijacking' of farming terms 'constituted an admission by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such camouflage'. He said it was 'a matter of considerable irritation to farmers to see the very people and corporations who want to replace our naturally produced meat and dairy very deliberately using the terms they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and meat products'. Oisín Coughlan, climate policy analyst and former chief executive of Friends of the Earth, expressed bafflement at the ICMSA's comments restricting vegan food producers from using words such as sausage or burger, and said any such move would be 'a step too far'. [ What's really in veggie burgers? Well, they aren't always made of veg Opens in new window ] 'Everyone knows that vegetarian sausages don't come from pigs and I don't see how a vegan sausage or veggie burger is damaging meat producers,' he said. 'It just communicates that if you don't want to eat meat there are equivalents available, and that seems fair to me.' Mr Drennan accused vegan food producers of wilfully trying 'to effectively 'smuggle' their own products past a sceptical public'. He suggested that plant-based food producers use terms such as sausage, burger and milk 'because they know that those terms already have a degree of acceptance'. [ The Irish Times view on food labelling: defending the sausage Opens in new window ] He claimed food producers 'simply appropriate the names of the very foods they're trying to replace and supplant'. 'It's unbelievably cynical and actually an admission that they know that they're unable to convince consumers by their own efforts or merits,' he said.
Irish Independent
13-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Call for lay TB testers to help reduce vet workload
In England and Wales, Approved Tuberculin Testers (ATTs) support vets in delivering TB testing of cattle. The ICMSA has said that non-vet TB testers – like those used in England and Wales - could help reduce workloads for vets, particularly during busy spring periods to allow them to focus on 'other critical areas' of animal health. In England and Wales, Approved Tuberculin Testers (ATTs) support vets in delivering TB testing of cattle. However, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, told the Farming Independent that TB testing in Ireland is carried out by approved private veterinary practitioners or DAFM Veterinary Inspectors with 'no plans currently to change this'.
