IFA chief warns Taoiseach: don’t take us for granted
Padraig Walshe issued the warning in his inaugural address as leader at the IFA’s annual general meeting in Dublin. He said the IFA’s involvement in social partnership and its support for it, is conditional on a fair allocation of national resources.
“It is also conditional on a properly-funded programme to strengthen the competitiveness of Irish agriculture in response to cuts under the CAP reform and the damaging WTO agreement.”
A 47-year-old dairy and beef farmer from Durrow, Co Laois, Mr Walshe said he was immediately starting the process of setting out the IFA’s partnership agenda.
Mr Walshe said the IFA will not shore up or give political legitimacy to any partnership agreement, which is no more than a pay deal between the Government and the unions. The new IFA leader, who has succeeded John Dillon, also called on Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan and the European Commission to insist on the same high standards for all food imports into Europe.
He also urged the Government to establish a high-level working group under the Taoiseach’s department involving the IFA co-ordinating Ireland’s handling of the WTO negotiations in Geneva on the crucial issue of import tariff cuts.
He said CAP has been subjected to an onslaught of criticism, led by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and their ‘agent’ in Brussels, Peter Mandelson. Their ‘fellow travellers’ in Ireland - Oxfam, Trócaire and, disappointingly, some of the Catholic Bishops - preach the same misinformation.
