The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that it will oppose “any land grab” by the next government, reacting to the framework document for a coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which was published last week.
Tim Cullinan, the association’s president, claimed that the document contained proposals to take private property from citizens, and to pay less than the market value. Cullinan said this would be strongly resisted by the IFA and farm families.
The framework document, under the heading of “Housing for All’, says that a new government would “place the state firmly at the centre of the Irish housing market”.
“The IFA is completely opposed to any such land grab by the state, whether that be through legislation or referenda to change constitutional property rights. I wrote to party leaders on March 11 before the talks, putting them on notice that such an approach was unfair and would be fought every step of the way,” Cullinan said.
The IFA president added: “Overall, the document is very light on agriculture and gives no real commitments in relation to defending the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] or trying to improve farm viability. Any programme for government must contain a lot more commitments on farming.”
Cullinan called on the participants in any future government to “avoid unnecessary conflict with property owners, including farmers”.
“The reality is that there are almost 2,000ha of land under state ownership, which can be mobilised today to address the housing challenge. [We] will not allow the housing problem to be used as a Trojan horse to diminish the property rights of farmers and property owners across the country,” Cullinan insisted.
“Farmers deserve fair value for their lands. Any attempt to pay less than the open market value for land and associated compensation will be strongly opposed by the IFA,” he concluded.