IFA payments scandal is a world away from farming realities

As the IFA’s emergency meeting took a badly needed break to recharge already frayed emotions, a copy of the Irish Farmers Journal left crumpled in the crowded foyer quietly spoke volumes, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Amid 53 IFA delegates still digesting revelations over top officials’ lucrative payments, to themselves, the headline ‘Anger at Payments Backlog: cash-flow concerns for thousands of farmers’ summed up the mood.

The crisis facing the rural lobby group due to the controversial salaries, pensions, and add-ons for ex-president Eddie Downey and general secretary Pat Smith, who stepped down last week, is a world away from the harsh realities ordinary farmers still face every day.

Like the Central Remedial Clinic, Rehab, and political expenses controversies, the IFA payments scandal is not just about money.

Pat Murray, Wexford IFA Chairman and Paddy Donnolly IFA National Livestock Vice Chairman talking before the IFA Executive Council Meeting at the farm Centre in Dublin

It is about how out of touch those at the top still appear to be compared to those doing the work at the bottom, despite a near decade of we’re-all-in-it-together austerity.

“It is shocking, a lot of farmers are terribly hurt out there, first by the huge salary the [former] general secretary [Mr Smith] was on and also what the [now temporarily stepped aside] ex president [Mr Downey] was on,” explained IFA national livestock vice-chairman and Westmeath farmer, Paddy Donnelly.

“I suppose a lot of farmers thought, and so did myself, that the president had a salary got for him to look after his farm. Maybe €147,000 wasn’t a huge fee for that, but it’s the add-ons and the drip feed we’re getting, that’s where farmers are hurting.”

Asked about the the apparent disconnect with ordinary farmers facing income as low as €10,000 a year, grant cuts, and years of bad luck, bad weather, and bad economics, delegates yesterday said it is completely understandable why people are so angry, but that they should wait for Con Lucey’s financial report on December 15 before deciding the IFA leadership’s fate.

IFA Deputy President Tim O'Leary along side Acting General Secretary Bryan Barry, before the IFA Executive Council Meeting at the farm Centre in Dublin

However, given the latest severance deal revelations last night, that sought-for waiting game was never going to hold sway with ordinary IFA members outraged by the contrast between their lives and those meant to be representing them.

It is farming. It is a special interest group. But it is also a story the wider public has become all too familiar with.