Minister gets high approval rating from farmers

MOST farmers are happy with the performance of Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, according to a survey published yesterday.

But 41.6% still indicated their intention to vote for Fine Gael in the next general election compared with 34.7% for Fianna Fáil.

The survey, commissioned by the Irish Farmers Journal, was conducted by Dr Pat Bogue, Broadmore Research, among 406 farmers at 12 locations across the country in late June and early July.

A total of 66% of those surveyed thought Ms Coughlan’s performance was good or excellent, with 18% calling it poor or very poor.

Her support was highest (74%) among farmers who indicated their intention to vote for Fianna Fáil next time out.

But she also enjoyed a 61% good or excellent rating among those who signalled their intention to vote for Fine Gael.

A total of 47% of the farmers surveyed rated Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s performance as poor or very poor with 33% maintaining it was good or excellent. Those farmers who plan voting Fianna Fáil gave him a 36% poor or very poor performance rating.

Voting intention breakdowns for other political parties were Progressive Democrats 2.2%, Independents 0.7%, and Sinn Féin 0.2%, with 20.4% undecided or not commenting. There were zero ratings for Labour and the Green Party.

More than two-thirds of the farmers rated the performance of Teagasc in the nitrates issue as poor or very poor with a third indicating that the Department of Agriculture and Food handled it poorly.

One in four of the farmers thought the farm organisations could have done better.

IFA leader Padraig Walshe had an 85.4% approval rating. Over a quarter of the farmers surveyed did not have an opinion on ICMSA president Jackie Cahill. But those who knew of his work gave him a 57% approval.