Watch: ‘Ireland’s in trouble’ if young generation leaves farming - McDonald
If the younger generation leaves farming, it would mean trouble for both the sector and the whole country, according to leader of Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald.
Speaking to Agriland at the National Ploughing Championships today (September 16), McDonald addressed the statistic of one in three farmers intending to leave the industry within five years.
The finding come from a survey conducted by leading Irish research agency Opinions, and commissioned by Agriland and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
Describing the statistics as “very stark”, Deputy McDonald said: “I was shocked by them.
“I noticed the demographic was also interesting: It wasn't just older farmers it was even some people in younger age groups so that shocked me.”
The Dublin Central TD added that “year after year” the question of generational renewal is raised at Ploughing.
She added that the question to ask is “what are we going to do about it, and more specifically what's the government going to do about it?”
Challenges
On the subject of keeping people farming, Deputy McDonald outlined two challenges.
The first is to “incentivise younger people into farming in a world where you have almost full employment and opportunities for younger people so to make it attractive”.
Secondly, she suggested a scheme and approach that supports older farmers and in transition out of farming, which might be to "some part-time farming, that doesn't in other words banish them entirely from the farm”.
Deputy McDonald added: “I think the Minister for Agriculture (Martin Heydon) and the government as a whole needs to come at this issue very seriously not as some kind of ancillary afterthought but as a core challenge.
“Because if it is a thing that younger generations lose faith in agriculture as a means of earning a living but also as a life and as a lifestyle then it's not just that agriculture is in trouble, Ireland’s in trouble if that happens.”
She added that the survey "serves as a wake-up call for anybody who's complacent on the issue".
CAP
On the subject of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Deputy McDonald said: “Europe should not be bragging and boasting quantums of money on arms and armaments and at the same time entertaining the thoughts of cutting CAP.
“That to me is obscene, that to me makes absolutely no sense.
“If you wanted to actually depict like the definition of the wrong direction for Europe it is re-arming Europe with hundreds of billions of expenditure and short-changing our farmers and agriculture.”
She described energy security as “an existential question” and said that Ireland food security also needs to be attended to.
On Ireland’s EU presidency, the Sinn Féin leader said that the government is “not simply a referee in this”.
“You have to go and bat for our farmers and for the agricultural sector," Deputy McDonald said.
