The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is in election mode at the moment, and while the focus is on the contests to fill the organisation’s two main leadership positions, three of the IFA’s four regional chairperson positions are also up for grabs.
Outside of the presidential election (contested by Martin Stapleton and Francie Gorman) and deputy presidential election (contested by Alice Doyle and Pat Murphy), elections will also be held for regional chairs in Connacht, Munster and South Leinster.
In this article, Agriland goes into detail on the two candidates for Connacht regional chair – namely Brendan Golden, from Co. Mayo and James Gallagher, from Co. Leitrim.
Agriland spoke to both candidates to get their views on the key issues facing farmers in Connacht, and what they can bring to the table.
Regional chair candidate – Brendan Golden
According to Brendan Golden, his experience as IFA livestock chairperson over the last four years will be “very beneficial going forward”.
He said that this, along with sitting on state bodies as a representative of the IFA, has given him insight into policy at both a national and EU level.
“I think I have a lot to bring to the position, and I have a deep passion for fighting for farmers and protecting our food production systems going forward,” Golden said.
The two issues Golden highlighted were protecting the production system for sustainable food, and, from an IFA point of view, reconnecting with farmers on the ground.
“Going forward we need engagement, because it’s very important that farming has a strong voice, and we have to have clear policies supported by all farmers as well, because if we have a fractured voice, it leaves it open to the government of the day to walk away from a lot of the issues that are important to us,” the suckler and beef farmer said.
Golden wants to see farmers who are currently viable, continuing like that, rather than having to take an off-farm job pay the bills.
“Being a full-time beef farmer at the moment is very challenging, so you have to look at sources of income at every corner. It’s getting to the stage where you can see why so many people have to have a job outside the farm, because for full-time livestock farmers, it’s becoming more and more challenging to keep going,” he said.
“The problem is, if you were to go outside the farmgate and you were to take on a job working five days a week or whatever, it’s very hard to farm then at the same level at home. Your income is being squeezed, and especially now, with the higher costs we’re incurring at the moment as well, that is making it even more challenging.
“The thing is I don’t want to see people that are viable farmers at the moment and are managing to keep going… I don’t want to see us losing any more of those, and when we see that drop-off in suckler cow numbers, that always worries me. Is that more farms gone?,” Golden said.
This leads on to another serious issue for him, namely generational renewal.
“If the opportunities inside the farmgate don’t match the opportunities outside the farmgate, it’s very hard to expect people to stay, because at the end of the day the bottom line is you have to have enough income to survive and to live,” he said.
“The key thing is – for EU policy and government policy, and all the discussions around climate change and environmental responsibility and all of that – a lot of our farming sector, the low income sectors, can’t afford to take on any more costs at this time.
“The economic viability of suckler and beef farms have to be the basis of future policy, and we need to get supports from government and from EU to deliver on both government and EU visions for farming going forward, and they have so far, to date, failed to do that,” Golden added.
James Gallagher
According to James Gallagher, the issues affecting farmers in the north-west of the country “are not heard in Dublin that much”.
“We need better representation up there… It’s very important to get there and bring the message of the people where it is needed,” he added.
Gallagher said that the IFA needs to have greater involvement in the formation of farm schemes and measures that are developed at a political level.
“If you were in a trade union, companies with a good trade union operating inside of it would bring the union representatives into discussion before anything is finalised to see if it is going to work, if it can be sold to members.
“The IFA needs to be involved in the final drafting of the new schemes that are coming in, and that’s where we need a strong organisation and a strong voice,” the suckler and sheep farmer said.
This, Gallagher said, was particularly important for issues like the EU Nature Restoration Law.
“I’m really thinking and concerned about what is going to happen, because all hell is going to break loose with the proposed restoration law that is being drafted by urban-based people that know nothing about the countryside,” he added.
“They are completely blindfolded to reality. They need to be educated in common sense… That’s what we’re lacking.”
The issues of nature restoration is, according to Gallaher, also linked to the issue of flooding, which, he said, will continue to worsen without proper action.
“We’re not dredging drains or cleaning up like we used to. This all needs to be discussed at the top of the IFA and it needs to be brought to the department [of agriculture], and to sit down with the different officials and different departments,” he said.
Gallagher added: “If they get the right flooding it will all happen again. That’s what I’m being told on the ground and that’s the people I want to represent, that are just fed up listening to talking, drafts and new reports, that reinvent the wheel every 10 years.”
The decline in the suckler herd, and the importance of suckler and sheep farmers to some parts of the country, is also of pressing importance to the Leitrim man.
“There are certain areas where the suckler cow is more suitable than large dairy herds. I want to see it underpinned that the production of food in these areas is not compromised…. The people who are drawing up these plans, as far as they are concerned, the food is on the supermarket shelf, that’s where it starts and ends,” he said.
“We have the farm organisations saying that if we don’t produce [beef], someone else will. As far as the powers that be are concerned, that doesn’t matter.
“If the figure for carbon emissions in this country drops, that’s the statistic they are going to be working with. It doesn’t matter if some other country sells food in here at a higher carbon footprint figure. It won’t be our figure,” he added.
According to Gallagher, Northern Ireland should be embraced as a market for beef cattle.
“I don’t want to see the suckler herd decline anymore. There is a great export trade for good quality cattle to Northern Ireland. That’s a market that’s on our doorstep. There are constantly obstacles being put in the way of that,” he said.
The counting for all IFA election will take place in December, with the newly-elected officers set to formally take up their roles at the association’s AGM early next year.