Candidate wants to bring viability back to all farm enterprises
“The importance of the family farm is one of my key priorities for the association,” said Mr Kennedy, who is the IFA’s national dairy committee chairman.
A former national president of Macra na Feirme, he has on-farm experience of dairy, beef, sheep, pigs and grain.
Mr Kennedy, a member of Clarina IFA branch, is pledging to use his experience and negotiating skills to ensure a positive outcome for the entire farming community in the upcoming negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy post 2013.
Targeting proposed Government cuts away from the productive sector so that livelihoods inside and outside the farm gate are protected is another of his goals.
Mr Kennedy and his wife Helen have six children, Anne-Marie, Thomas, James, Elaine, Jane and Elizabeth. He is in a family-farm partnership with Helen and James.
Ensuring that farm inspections are carried out in a considerate and understanding way is another of his election pledges.
Improving awareness of the financial stress and hardship that exists in many households in rural Ireland today and enhancing the IFA’s role in community development are also among his aims.
Mr Kennedy, who represents the IFA on the Irish Dairy Board, the National Dairy Council and the COPA milk group, has been the association’s dairy committee chairman since 2006.
He has led the committee in campaigning for higher milk prices, lobbying for Government and EU supports to lift returns in the immediate future and in ensuring there will be a future in dairying for young farmers.
Mr Kennedy, a past chairman of Limerick-North Cork farm relief services, has also encouraged the consolidation of the dairy industry so that more of the market returns will come back to farmers in a better milk price.
There are two other candidates for the IFA presidency – John Bryan, Kilkenny county chairman, and Derek Deane, deputy president.
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