The new Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) North Cork chair has told Agriland that having more farming organisations weakens the lobbying power of the sector.
Following his election earlier this month, Pat O’Keeffe paid tribute to the work of his predecessor and neighbour, Anne Baker, in leading the North Cork executive.
O’Keeffe runs a pig farm near Mitchelstown, Co. Cork and is also involved in the family dairy enterprise with his father and brother.
The farmer got involved in the IFA around 1990 and along with his new role, O’Keeffe is currently the Cork North representative on the IFA’s Animal Health Committee.
He said that tackling the impact of price inflation on costs was among his priorities for his tenure.
IFA presidents
During the last IFA presidential election in 2019, O’Keeffe gave his support to fellow pig farmer Tim Cullinan, who won, as opposed to the local candidate and then IFA Munster regional chair, John Coughlan.
Asked by Agriland if his decision led to division, O’Keeffe said: “It’s all water under the bridge. There’s a lot of good people that didn’t become president of IFA, they just didn’t get there at the end of the day. It’s like a lot of good politicians that don’t make it over the line. That’s democracy winning out on the day.”
O’Keeffe also had strong views on the approaches taken by IFA presidents to the role:
“I’ve seen [IFA] presidents bring different things and different challenges. Some of our earlier presidents were more farmer friendly and more on the ground and kept in touch with the farmers.”
The North Cork chair said that former IFA presidents John Dillon, Tom Parlon and Joe Rea were “very much on the ground”.
He said that the current IFA president, Tim Cullinan, “is a man with his boots on the ground, which is how he got elected”.
“You have to go down on the ground to feel the pain with the farmers at different stages when commodity prices change.
“That’s paramount for any leader of any organisation. You have to motivate your troops on the ground but you equally have to be with your people on the ground as they put you there,” O’Keeffe said.
Farming organisations
In relation to the increase in farm lobby groups on the Irish landscape in recent years, the North Cork IFA chair said:
“All these different faction groups have come about because they were not represented right within the IFA and maybe other organisations.
“You always have to look at yourself and say, why were we not looking after those farmers in the different regions of the country? That was never the case a number of years ago.
“You don’t see the nurses’ organisation or teachers’ unions splitting up when there’s a difference. When you have more farming organisations, it weakens your stance around the table,” O’Keeffe outlined.
O’Keeffe said that both the IFA administration and officers “have to gel” and think about what is best for the organisation and its members.
“Did we lose sight of our membership with the last maybe 10 years? Possibly we may have because farming has been changing since the financial crisis. So the farming organisations have to step up to the mark,” he stated.
Meanwhile, O’Keeffe said that he did not believe that the current crisis in the pig sector will lead to producers leaving the industry as financial institutions are “on hand” to help, if needed.
“I think we’ve seen many challenges down through the years on pig prices at different stages. We’re used to having good times for short periods and hard times for longer periods,” he explained.
O’Keeffe noted that pig producers are also under pressure due to labour shortages and legislation changes.