Haughey recalled for measures such as £15 heifer subsidy
He was a surprise appointment, after veteran Cavan politician Paddy Smith had resigned suddenly from the Agriculture post, in protest over Government economic policy, and in particular over what he saw as concessions to the trade union movement.
In the 1960s, Ireland still had a heavily agricultural economy. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in a statement last week said it was a measure of the confidence that his father-in-law, Taoiseach Sean Lemass, had in Haughey, that he did not hesitate to give this important position to a Dublin TD.
The new Minister went to some lengths in the Dáil to dispel farmers’ fears that he knew little of the agriculture business, and that agriculture was not one of his pet interests.
Michael Pat Murphy, the Labour TD for Cork South West, complained about the falling price of hen eggs, but he hardly expected the reply he received from the Minister.
Haughey revealed he was the owner of a profitable poultry farm in Co Meath. “I have 2,000 hens, and I made £874 net profit out of them in 12 months,” he said.
Haughey, who was reputed to have posted some 248,000 cards to farm families one Christmas, introduced a range of schemes.
These were aimed at boosting livestock, promoting animal disease eradication (with plans for regional veterinary laboratories), and setting up survey teams to examine various sectors within agriculture, such as horse breeding and horticulture.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also noted last week that as Minister for Agriculture, Charles Haughey negotiated better prices and outlets for farmers’ produce in the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement. Known as a great patron of the arts and a lover of horses, he also promoted our flourishing bloodstock industry, said Ahern.
Irish Farmers Journal editor Matt Dempsey said last week that Haughey encapsulated the Irish and especially the Fianna Fáil empathy with agriculture and what land in the Irish context meant.
He said Haughey’s emphasis on generating wealth, exports and jobs was reflected in measures such as the £15 once calved heifer subsidy in the mid-60s (the equivalent of €285 today); the stallion tax exemption scheme; and his backing for the partnership process which included farmers.
Haughey as Taoiseach, in 1987 with Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh, launched a strategy to develop a world class food processing industry on the shoulders of Larry Goodman.
But Goodman’s beef processing company came crashing down in 1990, owing more than €600 million to several banks, and it faced corruption allegations in 1991.
Goodman and the Irish beef industry have recovered well since. But another farming related Haughey involvement in agriculture in the mid 1980s ended unhappily for many farmers. His connection was tenuous, but when he paid €25,750 for a deer, and his Fianna Fáil colleague Ray MacSharry paid £49,500, in a blaze of publicity, deer farming gained prominence as an alternative no-quotas system for dry stock and dairy farmers.
Ordinary farmers piled in with big payments for stags, but ended up finding it hard to sell deer for venison.
An interest in deer reflected the ex-Taoiseach’s interest in conservation; in the Dáil, he once raised the plight of Killarney’s last remaining pure bred herd of Irish red deer. He kept red deer at Kinsealy and on his 171-acre private island, Inishvickillane.
His concern for them may have saved his life in 2001. He was at his Kinsealy home when he was struck down by a serious life-threatening cardiac condition. He recovered after treatment, but might have well have died on Inishvickillane if he had kept to an earlier plan to spend the weekend on his island. The reason he didn’t was because of the risk of infecting Inishvickillane’s rare wildlife with the foot and mouth virus threatening Ireland at the time.
