It has been a year that has trialled those that are best-off in society, and further weakened those worst-off.
Seamus Boland has worked in the civil society for over 40 years and using this experience, he tells AgriLand that the impacts of Covid-19 will be long-lasting, especially for the vulnerable, and those in rural Ireland.
He is the first Irish person to be elected to this position since its foundation in 1956.
“That contributes to my priorities; many of which are to do with the development of communities, especially rural, and to bring a bit more wealth and well-being into rural areas,” Boland tells AgriLand.
“Some of the issues I am focussed on are there all the time, but have been escalated and made more visible because of Covid.
“Rural isolation is particularly pressing at the moment because it affects older people mainly, people with disabilities, those living alone, both women and men.
“In a sense, the current pandemic has, unfortunately, forced the issues further down the line – because in the current Level 5, people have resorted to being isolated again. But, they’re willing to do that and make the sacrifice.
“At least when they’re home they’re safe…but that’s lonely.”
‘The situation with marts is untenable; not even forgivable’
The Co. Offaly man is a farmer himself, and said that the restrictions on marts, along with the closure of pubs, is “adding another dimension to rural isolation, which we do forget about”.
“There is well-being and psychological well-being and maintaining them is hugely important,” Boland continued.
In many cases, people who already were disconnected from society had the weekly mart visit or weekly visit to the pub to look forward to and that’s gone now and that’s a big issue. The situation with marts is untenable; not even forgivable.
However, Boland said he hopes to use his new role as an opportunity to “develop and grow rural Ireland”. He hopes that the challenges that lie ahead for Irish agriculture may help to strengthen it.
“Agriculture is facing huge challenges – challenges related to income as we know, there are challenges linked to the environmental situation where farming is being forced to comply with a whole new regime.
“The next CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] will certainly zone in on this and in that sense, farming is facing huge challenges, the beef sector in particular is on its knees.
“But, we really need to embrace the whole environmental challenge and in that sense, new research and new thinking is needed around how can a farmer be profitable, and can they be profitable. There can, and should, be benefits for farmers.
Unfortunately, if we are not careful, we are going to lose the vast majority of the smaller sized farms and therefore, many families associated with that will be gone as well.
“There are ideas in regards to what we can do to both protect these farms along with the environment, but we’re not really grasping them yet.
“I just know if we keep doing what we’re doing, we will lose thousands of smaller holders in the next 10 years and have a situation where most people in rural areas are not actually involved in farming.”
About Boland
Boland is a farmer and has worked in the civil society for over 40 years. This has included young people, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and rural people living in rural isolation. He is a trained speech and drama educator.
As a member of the EESC since 2011, Boland has held different roles, and has chaired study groups on topics such as minimum wages, migration and sustainable development and was rapporteur for various EESC opinions related to agriculture, rural development, energy, social affairs and Brexit.