Coolmore Stud’s reported 20,000ac land portfolio in the south Tipperary region is the equivalent of 166 farms with 120ac each, ICMSA Deputy President, Pat McCormack has said.
McCormack was speaking on Tipp Mid West Radio recently on the issue where Coolmore is understood to be pricing farmers out of buying land in the area.
Agriland contacted Coolmore Stud for a comment on the issue, however in this case it had no comment to make.
The ICMSA President said that this is not a new issue to ICMSA. It’s a significant issue, not only in Tipperary but in Waterford also, he said.
“It’s a very real issue on the ground there. Family farms just not able to compete with the power of larger units in their ability to buy land.”
“You’d wonder why they’d need to buy it, they’re not breaking any laws but it’s having a significant impact on family farms.
“The reality is that over the last 25-30 years, Coolmore has acquired gradual pieces of land over that time and that has kept it [the issue] from becoming a public outcry.
“It has been an issue now for a number of years, now they’re in almost in every parish in the county. It leaves no room for the guy that’s milking cows and wants to expand his operation. It’s a massive issue.”
Also speaking on the show was IFA Deputy President Richard Kennedy, who said that the issue only came up at the last IFA Executive Council.
“We have referred it to the IFA Farm Business Committee, that’s our position.
IFA is a family organisation, our ethos is to see as many farm families as possible in Ireland but we also very much accept that the free market must exist.
Kennedy said that from an IFA point of view it’s a fresh issue and he doesn’t see it going any further until the Farm Business Committee reports back.
“It will come back to National Council and it will be debated there and I’m quite certain it will be debated at the County Executive in south Tipperary,” he said.