The election of chairperson of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Dairy Committee and the role of vice-chair of the National Livestock Committee is underway in the latest IFA committees election.

The IFA has said that ballot papers have been issued to each member of the two committees in this latest IFA committees election. The deadline for returning the completed postal ballot is Friday, April 16.

Each committee will hold a meeting on Friday week (April 16), at which the results will be announced.

IFA committees election

IFA national treasurer, Martin Stapleton, said that despite the restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19, the IFA National Council decided to press ahead with elections as they were due.

“The postal system has worked very well across our structure, with elections for committee positions, county chairs and one regional chair position,” he said.

“It shows the flexibility of the association in responding to the circumstances.”

Previous chairperson

Tom Phelan, who was the previous chairperson of the National Dairy Committee left the role to contest a seat on the board of Glanbia Co-op, which he secured.

At that point, the vice-chair of the committee, Stephen Arthur, assumed the duties of chairperson until a new chair is elected.

Declan Hanrahan is the current vice-chair of the National Livestock Committee and his term in the role is now up for renewal.

Hanrahan took up the post in August 2020 after the then vice-chair, Brendan Golden, became the chairperson replacing Angus Woods at the time.

Election process

There is no nomination process as such, when it comes to electing officers of an IFA committee.

Each member of both committees has a single transferrable vote, meaning that each member can vote for as many people as they want to.

All postal ballots must be returned to the association by Friday week, April 16, when counting will begin.

It’s expected that the announcement of who has secured each of the positions will be announced at respective committee meetings on that date.