The first of 17 election debates for the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) 2019 presidential elections will commence tonight, Monday, October 21.

The debate will take place in the South Court Hotel, Limerick, and will begin at 8:30pm.

All presidential and deputy presidential candidates are expected to participate in the series of debates which will run nationwide until Thursday, November 21.

The candidates are as follows:

President:

  • John Coughlan;
  • Tim Cullinan;
  • Angus Woods;

Deputy president:

  • Thomas Cooney;
  • Brian Rushe.

IFA presidential election debates will take place in counties Kerry and Cork this week also.

The Kerry debate will take place in the Rose Hotel, Tralee, tomorrow, Tuesday, October 22, and the Cork debate will take place in the Oriel Hotel, Ballincollig, on Thursday, October 24.

Running order

At the event, the deputy presidents will speak first – each being allowed seven minutes to address attendees at the meeting. It will be decided by lot who speaks first and will then rotate on following nights.

A 30-minute question and answers session will then be opened to the floor. Finally, the deputies will be allowed one minute each to close the session with a wrap-up speech.

Next up, the presidential candidates will each be allowed 10 minutes to address the meeting. Speaking order will be determined by lot and will be rotated on the following nights.

There will then be a 45-minute question and answers session and the session will draw to a close with a one-minute round-up session.

Voting

Voting will take place in each of the IFA’s 945 branches from Monday, November 25, until Friday, December 13. The election count will take place in Dublin on Tuesday, December 17.

The 16th president of the IFA and the other national officers will take up office at the IFA’s AGM in January 2020.