Teagasc farm placements for Green Cert students should be suspended until an investigation into the system is completed, a meeting has heard.
The Kerry Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) county executive meeting last night (Thursday, April 22) unanimously passed a motion on the issue which will be forwarded to IFA national council for discussion in May.
Speaking to Agriland, chair of the Kerry IFA Dairy Committee Michael O’Dowd, who tabled the motion, claimed that there are “no young farmers coming into the industry”.
O’Dowd stated that some genuine concerns about the farm placement system operated by Teagasc must be addressed. He said that this includes the rates paid to the young farmers, along with facilities and standards on placement farms.
He said that the merit of such placements for students who are already from a farming background should also be examined.
During the meeting it was suggested that Teagasc should set up a helpline to allow those on farm placement raise legitimate concerns that they may have.
The placement on a host farm forms part of the full-time Green Cert course run by Teagasc over two academic years at its agricultural colleges.
The placement is eight weeks in duration for first year students and 16 weeks for those in second year.
According to Teagasc, the Green Cert is the most widely accepted course to qualify for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) schemes.
This includes the Young Farmers’ Scheme and the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).
It is also the qualification required for stamp duty exemption to those under 35 years of age on the transfer of land.
The Kerry IFA meeting was attended by IFA deputy president, Brian Rushe who is also a member of the board of Teagasc.
The IFA recently confirmed that Rushe, IFA president Tim Cullinan and the organisation’s director general, Damian McDonald were to get pay rises.
McDonald’s salary will increase to €215,998, Cullinan will be paid €140,000, while Rushe will now get €40,000.
The IFA stated that these salaries have remained unchanged since 2016.
However, there has been anger among some grassroots members to the announcement. This week, North Cork IFA called on national council to review the decision.
Kerry IFA chair Kenny Jones told Agriland that a similar motion at last night’s meeting in Tralee also received unanimous support.
“There was a consensus at the meeting that the timing of the wage increase was wrong when farmers are struggling to buy feed and fertiliser,” he said.
Jones also called on the government to provide more support for smaller dairy, beef, suckler and sheep farmers who are battling against rising input costs.