Next week will see the counting of votes in the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) 2023 elections, with the organisation’s next president and deputy president to be confirmed.
But as well as that, the results of elections for three of the IFA’s regional chairpeople will be announced.
The IFA members in the organisation’s Connacht, Munster and South Leinster regions will know their new regional chairs from next week.
The three candidates for the South Leinster regional chairperson are: Paul O’Brien from Co. Kilkenny (the current IFA environment chairperson); Thomas Byrne from Co. Wicklow (current IFA chairperson for that county); and Pat Farrell from Co. Kildare (former IFA animal health chairperson).
Agriland spoke to these three candidates to find out what issues they would seek to highlight and bring to the attention of politicians and the wider public in the event they get to role.
Paul O’Brien
Paul O’Brien criticised the government for its lack of communication with farmer representatives, and farmers themselves.
“In the last four years, dealing with the (present) government…and also the (present European Commission), farmers have gone on this journey to improve our image. We’ve worked hard at reducing emissions, we’ve worked hard to understand the concerns of the wider public, and a lot of things have changed very rapidly from a farmer’s point of view,” he said.
“If we’re being honest, a lot of that has had to be explained by people like the IFA. That should not be our job. It’s up to the government if they want to come along with plans, it’s up to [the government] to explain this to the people,” O’Brien added.
“More and more it’s being left out there and for people like us to try to explain the logic of why the government has made these decisions. That’s fundamentally unfair.”
O’Brien also highlighted the inadequacy of current farm payments and schemes, saying: “We look at the size of environmental schemes, and ultimately, it’s limiting the amount of very active farmers [that can] be a part of that.
“It should be up to the government to design schemes so that more and more farmers have the ability to be able to join into that. We are looking at reductions in a real sense in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and many farmers in my region, in the southeast, are looking back and reflecting on the payments they’ve received…and they’re seeing a lot of money changed from this year to last year,” he said.
“So while CAP is losing its relevance, the market place is going to have to deliver a better return for farmers… It’s now up to the government to make sure that there’s an opportunity for farmers to receive a decent proportion of the price.”
O’Brien added: “There is no doubt about it at the moment, the BISS (Basic Income Support for Sustainable) payment has come as a tremendous challenge. The reduction, on very active farms, of historical payments that have now been lost, and the realisation that the safety net that was there is now become considerably more challenged, does mean that there has to be a better focus on returning a farmgate price.
“Payments from the [Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine] are lower, but they’re also slower, and this has been an immense challenge to farmers and their incomes, and their ability to pay off their bills and start thinking about next year, and that is a challenge for all farming and every single farming household,” he said.
O’Brien said that diversified income streams may have a role to play in helping farmers meet these challenges.
He said: “We have to start looking at other things. We have to start broadening our horizons a bit and looking at maybe alternatives that might not only be food production. That’s vitally important, we can’t stay in a rigid process that is not returning money.”
He reiterated the frustration in dealing with the current government, saying “It’s like playing handball of a haystack”.
“More and mover over the last couple of years it has become very frustrating when you know that when you’re bringing to the table, that the department and government have really decided the outcome before they have a stakeholder meeting or any form engagement,” O’Brien added.
Thomas Byrne
For Thomas Byrne, one of the main concerns for the IFA, and the wider farming community, is that the sector is not proactive enough in its communication with the public on environmental issues.
“With regard to the IFA and its policies, we need to stop this policy of firefighting, we need to be proactive, not reactive. We need to get out there and face the issues, know about the issues, know about what’s going on, and fight on the issues before it becomes a ‘fire brigade’ situation, where you’re going to put out the fire,” he said.
Byrne added: “We need to be more proactive. We need to get up and stand up loud and proud. We can’t be done down all the time.”
He also suggested that the IFA should also be more open to working with the other leading farm organisations in the country.
The IFA Wicklow county chair said: “If you didn’t have the IFA you would be in bad place, but at the same time there’s other organisations. There is no reason we shouldn’t talk to the organisations.
The IFA picketed a meeting of the Farmers’ Charter earlier this year, after the department announced that the European Commission would not revisit the terms and conditions of Ireland’s nitrates derogation. The fact that most other farm organisations (the exception being the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association) also boycotted the meeting was significant, according to Byrne.
“I think history was made…outside the Department of Agriculture, where we asked the other organisations not to go in, and only one organisation passed the picket. I think history was made there, and I think that’s what needs to be done.
“I have no problem talking to the other farm organisations. I don’t want to be a member, I don’t want them to be a member of us, I don’t want to consume them or bury them or anything else. Just talk.
“Until we talk with a united voice, we won’t be listened to, because we are being divided. Most of them are our neighbours,” he added.
Byrne is also looking to “revitalise” county branches by enticing younger members into the organisations. However, he reiterated the need for the organisation to be proactive on the issues of the day in order to do that.
“It’s a difficult one, but I honestly believe that if we’re seen to be proactive, and seen to be doing the thing, than we will be taken more seriously and the young farmers that are out there, and there are not many of them left, will come along and say ‘these people are doing something’,” he said.
“I do think it’s a perception thing, that we sit on our hands and don’t do the stuff… We need to be more proactive, we need to be out in front, not coming in after with the fire brigade. If we continue to do that, the whole thing is lost.”
“There’s a whole scope of stuff that needs to be took on out there, but no more firefighting, no more ‘last minute’. We’ve had maybe three or four years of that now,” he said.
“We are not climate deniers, but we are needed three times a day and that’s not talked about enough, the fact that we are the people that produce the food. The cleanest, best food is the food we produce in this country,” Byrne added.
Pat Farrell
The third of the South Leinster regional chair hopefuls, Pat Farrell, said that the main issue for him was “the ground we’ve lost in IFA in the last number of years”.
The big area where ground had been lost, according to Farrell, is on the nitrates derogation.
He said: “The main one for me is the derogation and the way it was handled. In IFA, I’d be saying we’d need a competent specialised person [on nitrates] because if we had somebody that was able to challenge figures more robustly, we mightn’t be in the predicament we are in now.
“It will be even more important going forward because we know that the 220kgN/ha is still under threat.
“People might say we can’t afford this, but [such a person] can be got on a retainer basis. They don’t have to be employed by the organisation on a full-time basis,” Farrell added.
The former IFA animal health chair sounded a warning over what would happen if Ireland lost its nitrates derogation altogether, and the maximum organic nitrogen (N) stocking rate is capped at 170kgN/ha.
“If it goes back to 170 it’s going to be a disaster…It’s going to effect everyone. There might be only 3,000 impacted at the minute, but there is a lot more exporting slurry,” he said.
“I think there’s about 9,000 or 10,000 people exporting slurry last year, and if its reduced to 170, it’s going to catch everyone in derogation, plus anyone just above it exporting slurry.”
Farrell added: “There are people who are staying out of derogation at the minute by exporting slurry. We’ll say they’re between 170 and 180. Now you’re going to have more people having to export it as well as them.
“If you have a whole lot more people coming in on top of it, where is it going to be put?” he said.
One of the other main issues on Farrell’s agenda is farm incomes.
He said: “We need all sectors involved in agriculture, so all sectors need to get an income.”
“It’s not good enough to have just one or two sectors that are able to get it and others are left behind. We have to try harder to make sure that every sector gets an income, and every farmer gets an income,” he added.
The income issue, according to Farrell, is key to generational renewal.
“If we’re serious about the next generation coming into farming, that’s where it is, incomes. If a young person sees more money somewhere else, and there’s loads of work available, they’re not going to come into agriculture.”
Farrell also highlighted issues with the perception of farming in the public mind, and communication with the public, saying: “We seem to be falling down, because farming is a dirty word now, and has been for the last while”.
According to the candidate, it can be difficult for farmers’ voices to be heard in national media because, as he put it, “they aren’t that way inclined”.
“There’s a disconnect between urban and rural. Not so much in… the likes of provincial towns that are dependent on the agricultural hinterland anyway… But there’s an awful disconnect between Dublin and rural Ireland,” he said.
“We don’t seem to be able to sell the message anyway, that farming is not the dirty industry that it’s perceived to be,” Farrell added.