Voters weren’t in the mood to hear Martin

THE scones alone could have pulled votes in the warm and inviting farmhouse kitchen offered as a launch pad for Fianna Fáil’s agrifood policy — if only there were voters to sample them.

Instead, on a day savoured by none but the ducks on O’Sullivans’ farm a few miles south of Cork city, party leader Micheál Martin outlined his agrarian hopes to a field full of cows who nodded and mooed in wonder, the bovine equivalent of an audience of Fianna Fáil party faithful.

Camera work done, it was back to the pack of waiting journos for questions on what his party had ever done for farmers? Where was Fianna Fáil when they were struggling with banks to get credit? Why not offer them the sun, moon and stars while in power? Come to think of it, where were the farmers to witness the launch of this agrifood policy? (After all Fianna Fáil now believes agriculture is “central to restoring economic growth and creating jobs” and has “absolute commitment” to the sector).