IFA criticises Agri Vision 2015

Dublin: Misleading in presentation and flawed in analysis was how the IFA chief economist Con Lucey yesterday described the Agri Vision 2015 committee report published last December.

Mr Lucey, speaking at a press conference in Dublin, said that, as a result, the report is widely perceived to have concluded that there will be 10,000 or fewer full-time viable farmers in Ireland in 2015. “The report is misleading in presentation because it omits to state that, based on its own analysis, 40,000 farms are likely to be economically viable based on farming only, in 2015.

“It points out the negatives - 45,000 farms will be non-viable in farming but the farmer or spouse will have an off-farm job, and a further 20,000 are described as transitional (non-viable and no job),” he said.