Walsh says we’ve come a long way
FROM where Joe Walsh was standing this week, the perspective was revealing.
The ex-Minister for Agriculture and Food has been in politics since 1974. The 1980s are recent history for him, and he recalls that politicians felt good if they could get a visa for somebody to get out of the country in the ’80s.
He has also been reminding the Celtic Tiger generation of those who left Ireland in the 1930s and 1950s, uneducated, “kicked around by every boss”, many of them ending their days in miserable hovels.
“We have much to answer for and, thankfully, in the past decade, we have used our independence to much better effect”, he said.
“I hope members of the current generation do not have to face the kind of hardship faced 30 or 40 years ago”, he said. “They would not be used to it and would find it extremely difficult to get by. In many parts of the country, people have good housing and conditions, but it is not so long ago that running water was a status symbol, as was electricity. There would be problems if one now tried to extend rural electrification throughout the country, because people are more demanding and stand on their rights”, he reflected.
A return to the bad old days is unlikely in the medium term, with Ireland performing at the highest level internationally in a range of disciplines, according to Walsh. “We no longer have an inferiority complex about being Irish. We are full of confidence, our stride is lengthening and I believe we will do even better than we are doing now”.
Much has been done to develop a modern agriculture industry. “While I accept that not as many people now work in agriculture, this is the case for many occupations. However, at least there is a better standard of living, the drudgery has been taken out of farming, and well educated young people get opportunities in our own economy.”
In his own case, he gives much of the credit for his achievements in agriculture to his able staff.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that Ireland as a member state and the Irish team of negotiators, not just in relation to agriculture but in relation to foreign affairs and other disciplines, are regarded in Europe as the most professional in the EU”, he said.
He also pointed out that with the economy doing well, he had the money to do, in the main, what he wished for as a Minister.
Now, Ireland was recognised internationally as an island where good, wholesome, nutritious and safe quality food is produced, €7 billion worth of which is exported annually.
He singled out Irish beef farmers and processors as an example of the professionalism which has powered the industry, recovering from the 2001 situation of Ireland having to incinerate 500,000 head of cattle, with no market after the BSE scare left confidence in red meat at an all-time low, and 80% of people gave up consuming beef.
Starting as a “lowly” cumann secretary, going all the way up to the Cabinet, Walsh said he aimed to showed respect at all times for those with whom he dealt.
“I know there comes a time when one enters a new phase of life and may again meet people on one’s way down who are now on the way up, and that it is as well not to have been rude or hostile to them”, was his insight into being a “nice” politician.
Referring to the way he stepped down from Cabinet, he said, “The last thing I would want is to have some sort of grudge or chip on my shoulder at the end of the day. I do not. I am entirely comfortable and want to see a new face and new blood getting the opportunity I did”.
He said he knew some of his colleagues’ parting wishes were exaggerated.
And he couldn’t resist recently telling members of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food who lavished him with praise, “I wondered for a while whether I was deceased. In my part of the country, you would be as dead as a doornail before people would be that generous”.
