People from rural Ireland as well as from towns and cities across the country have voiced various concerns with the recently launched Farmers’ Alliance.
Mainly farmers, but also people from other professional backgrounds including business people from both urban and rural Ireland have reached out to the group, Helen O’Sullivan said.
Everyone the group has spoken to and everyone that has rang or made contact with its members all seem to be wanting the same thing – a new political party, she added.
Speaking to Agriland, the newly appointed spokesperson for the Farmers’ Alliance said: “A lot of these people feel let down, that they have no representation at all.
“They just feel that there is no one working in their behalf, especially the farmers with the whole rewetting and rewilding thing at the moment.”
The issue of climate change seems to be “solely focused on farmers”, O’Sullivan, who said she knows what they are facing as a suckler farmer in west Cork herself, added.
“We have a lot of farmers coming to us and they are concerned. They don’t know will it be there for their family to take over in a number of years’ time because of all those new laws coming in, all the red tape.
“That’s a huge concern at the moment because they are worried, they have invested huge amounts of money into their farms, their own livelihood and that of their children.
“We all need food, everybody needs food. The population is growing. Where do they expect the food to come from?” the newly appointed spokesperson told Agriland.
Farmers’ Alliance
Over the past months the group has been collaborating with people, holding meetings nationwide with a view to forming a political party, the spokesperson said.
“We don’t want to rush into anything because it has to be right. We want to take everyone’s ideas into consideration and everyone’s request,” she said.
“There is a whole array of people there from all over the country both urban and rural so we want to make sure we have this right with more meetings lined up,” she added.
Commenting that it is not just people in rural Ireland that are “fed up” and “want something new” with costs “soaring through the roof”, she said:
“I have people crying on the phone to me and they don’t know what they are going to do going forward because every week something has gone up in price. A lot of them are worried about having food on the table for their family.”
The Farmers’ Alliance aims to be a voice for both farmers and consumers and to address “problematic issues that may threaten” Ireland’s indigenous industry.
The group has been in consultation with numerous TDs, businesses and interested parties and have received a very positive response, the spokesperson said.
How the climate change agenda will effect the agriculture industry will be of major interest for the group, which also hopes to “bridge the gap between urban and rural dwellers”.
“We are listening to people from all backgrounds everywhere. The best way going forward, which we know, is a political party,” the newly appointed spokesperson for the Farmers’ Alliance said.