Strong representation needed to protect farmers’ interests
It took the main farming bodies working together, the withdrawal of two farmers’ organisations from partnership talks, an intensive lobbying campaign, and warnings of implications in the general election to get some recognition for common sense.
At least, it has established that there is still some political clout left in farming. More significantly, the episode exposed the lack of understanding, and — dare we say it — the lack of concern for the viability of Irish farming for some members of the government.
The protracted and at times contentious battle by farmers for conditions in which farming can survive exposed the extent to which the Minister for the Environment and his Department were removed from farming reality.
It seems easier to get a government u-turn on decentralisation for a few hundred state employees — whose claims are equally justified — than to get penal restriction for thousands of farmers modified.
The lesson for farmers is becoming more evident every year: it is the necessity for strong, independent national representation to protect their interests, as their numerical strength weakens.
The EU’s response to the latest Irish nitrates proposals is looking favourable.
But regardless of the outcome, the arrogance of the Department of the Environment was no credit to a government which claims to still rate agriculture highly.
The government’s approach has wasted a lot of time and effort which could have been more usefully employed in planning how farmers, facing the worst threat to their incomes in more than two decades, can be helped.
