Dardis rattles IFA delegation

THE Nitrates controversy has highlighted the poor public image of Irish farmers. Efforts to repair it should be intensified, even if it takes decades.

One would have expected a retired farmer and ex-agricultural journalist to have a benign attitude to farmers. On the contrary, the comments of Senator John Dardis during the recent Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs debate on the Nitrates Directive must have been quite a eye-opener for the powerful IFA deputation led by its President, Padraig Walshe, which addressed the Committee.

Dardis, a Progressive Democrats senator and the ex-Tillage Editor of the Farmers Journal, declared that he had two interests in the debate, as a retired farmer and an angler.