New IFA leadership must heed the calls of grassroots farmers
All sectors of Irish farming are on their collective knees and the future of this once proud industry, which was the mainstay and backbone of the national economy, is now imperilled.
The demise of family farming in Ireland would not only have a devastating effect on those directly involved - the farming community itself - but it would also ravage the wider rural communities who depend on a thriving family farm sector for their sustenance.
The demise of family farming would also have a negative impact on wealth creation and employment, putting the brakes on economic growth.
It is time for Irish farmers to fight back. The forthcoming IFA national elections afford them the opportunity to do so.
Four years ago, many of us who were concerned with the response of the IFA to the challenge which faced Irish agriculture were active in the campaign to elect John Dillon as president. During that campaign Mr Dillon often referred to “the yawning gap” between the grassroots farmers (who have made the IFA the strength it is today) and those in the Farm Centre who administer the IFA, and who effectively control the organisation.
Mr Dillon then called for the control of the organisation to be taken back by the grassroots farmers.
To today’s candidates in the election for the IFA presidency, there is one message: those who supported John Dillon’s election platform for the radicalisation of farming politics have not gone away.
Despite the fact Mr Dillon largely failed to deliver on his promise to reshape the IFA along more democratically accountable lines, that need for real change in the outlook of the organisation and for change in its administrative structure is more urgent now than ever before.
Even at this late stage, the IFA has the capacity to arrest the decline in the fortunes of our industry - if the huge resource of its membership and available finances were properly and efficiently harnessed for the general good of the farming community.
* The method of collection of the IFA’s EIF levy by the meat factories must be changed - as the National Council of the IFA committed to do in the aftermath of the meat factory blockade in January 2000. There is a clear conflict of interest in the current method, which compromises the ability of the IFA to successfully face down the meat processing industry which manipulates the beef and lamb market for its own advantage.
* There must be transparency in decision making at all levels in the organisation and this must mean actual and full democratic accountability in policy making and in the day to day running of the organisation.
* There must be an end to the policy of open-ended contracts for IFA executive staff in the Farm Centre and at regional level, who carry with their positions the ability to concentrate power. Salaries and expenses claimed by executive staff, as well as any company directorships held by them, should be disclosed in an annual report readily available to every IFA member.
* Major policy decisions must be decided by the wider membership (in a referendum of the branches) where every member is balloted on issues rather than the current practice of giving final decision- making to National Council behind closed doors.
* Freedom to farm, as promised by former EU agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler, must become a reality if farming is to survive.
* IFA must resist EU Directives and their transposition into Irish law which damage Irish agricultural interests and pander to vested interests, as exemplified by the bureaucratic blockade on the live export of sheep and the EU Directiveon prescription-only veterinary medicines.
* Protests and demonstrations should be followed through by alternative modes of action until aims are achieved.
* IFA should insist on the achievement of a minimum income for farmers, just as trade unions lobbied for the minimum wage for workers being brought into law.
* There should be a declaration of interests, and full disclosure of any company directorships, by all candidates seeking election to senior IFA posts.
* There must be full disclosure of all corporate donations to the IFA, and all donations to IFA candidates. A register of corporate donations must be established and this should be available to all IFA members.
We call on the IFA presidency candidates to become radical or become redundant.
James Reynolds
Secretary
Family Farm Protection Group
Laughill
Coolarty
Mostrim
Co Longford
