The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) will chair a meeting this week aiming to address the long-standing issues in Kerry IFA.
In a letter addressed to county officers in Kerry, Francie Gorman said that the meeting in the Rose Hotel, Tralee on Friday night (February 16) will be open to county officers and commodity section chairs.
IFA National Farm Forestry Committee chair Jason Fleming, who is a member of IFA National Council, has also been invited to attend the meeting.
The IFA president said that only those who have been invited will be entitled to attend the meeting.
Meeting
The letter, seen by Agriland, states that “the objective of the meeting is to restore the orderly operations of the IFA Kerry County Executive”.
The IFA president said that if it is not possible then he is reserving the right to propose “that some, or all, of the officers and some members in Kerry are removed or suspended from office”.
Gorman said that he will chair the meeting and “all officers will be expected to respect the rulings of the chair”.
The letter adds that no abusive language or personal attacks against any officer or individual will be allowed.
“If any member indulges in any such behaviour, they will be asked to leave the meeting and I reserve the right to propose to National Council, at its next meeting, that such a member be suspended or expelled from IFA under Rule 87,” Gorman said.
Relations have been strained within the Kerry county executive in recent years, with repeated calls for mediation to take place coming from some members.
In July 2022, Kerry IFA chair Kenny Jones made a formal complaint to IFA headquarters mainly related to messages posted in the Kerry IFA messaging groups, and to messages sent directly to him.
Three members of the Kerry county executive were contacted by IFA headquarters in relation to the complaint.
This included then Kerry IFA vice-chair and sheep chair John Joe Fitzgerald, then Kerry IFA Dairy chair Michael O’Dowd and Francis Foley, all of whom denied any wrongdoing.
Fitzgerald resigned from his position and left the farming organisation entirely.
In October 2022, IFA National Council voted to approve a recommendation from the association’s National Rules, Privileges and Procedures Committee to ban O’Dowd from holding an officer role in the association for four years.
O’Dowd does not accept the decision of the national council or the manner in which the complaint was dealt with by the IFA. The national council will review this sanction after two years.
The issue has caused a deep division and has also impacted the workings of the association in the county.
Separately, a number of complaints from Kerry IFA county officers have been lodged with IFA headquarters on a range of matters which are still outstanding.