Call to recognise expertise

SPENDING one or two years in agricultural college is all very well, but don’t expect it to do anything for your credibility if you ever end up in court over some farming matter, even if you have decades of farming experience.

That was the verdict of farmers in the recent Limerick IFA meeting at Adare, when discussion turned to qualifications.

Speakers revealed a sore point about “experts”, with Ballingarry, Co Limerick dairy farmer Gerard Cronin telling his fellow farmers, “no matter what farm courses I do or what experience I have, the word of someone quarter my age with letters after their name is taken in court before me”. He said, “It is ridiculous that a farmer’s opinion has no legal standing in a court, he is only regarded as an interested observer, but someone with a few letters after their name is regarded as an expert, no matter that they have no experience of the job”.