IFA to set to name new president following lengthy campaign
Tomorrow, the Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) will name a new president after a lengthy campaign which came to a conclusion last Friday, December 13.
Lucky for some, including the man who will succeed outgoing president Joe Healy, the Galway man who has steadied the ship after the ructions in late 2015 that pitched the country’s largest farming representative body into national controversy.
The IFA national count will take place at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin tomorrow and the new president will take up office at the annual general meeting in January.
The vote, which also selects the IFA deputy president, has taken place and is truly a representative poll, with almost 1,000 IFA branch meetings, from Arainn Mhor Island off Donegal to Bere Island off Co Cork, held between November 25 and December 13.
The big question now is who has secured victory — John Coughlan from the Buttevant branch in North Cork, Tim Cullinan from the Toomevara branch in North Tipperary, or Angus Woods from the Barndarrig branch in Wicklow.
‘I will be taking the fight directly to the factories’
Tim Cullinan has beenfarming in Toomevara for more than 40 years across dairy, beef, tillage, and pig farming. He cites his 15-year track record in IFA committees and county roles and the results secured, such as leading the negotiations on the nitrates derogation and securing bonus payments for the quality of Irish pigmeat.
He also said he has battled with the Department of Agriculture on what he said were “unfair inspections that cost North Tipperary farmers €1.2m” and that he also negotiated a €140m compensation package for farmers on the dioxin crisis.
His campaign rhetoric has hit a harder edge than his competitors. He stated that “unsustainable” cattle prices would be his first priority if elected, adding: “I will be taking the fightdirectly to the factories.”
He is also demanding that factories negotiate directly with beef finishers and wants the €100m Beam Scheme be reopenedimmediately. There are also calls to “cut the red tape” and more generous CAP payments to suckler, hill and lowland farmers, as well as improved milk prices.
According to his campaign literature: “I’m requesting Teagasc to produce a report showing Ireland’s unique grass-based dairy system produces less methane emissions than any other country in the world.”
He also wants there to be a “radical overhaul of IFA’s structures” to include new, elected committees.
Yet, despite striking a harder note in his campaign, unlike his rivals for the top job, Mr Cullinan was not front and centre at the recent protest actions at retailers and told the Irish Examiner.
“I will be straight with you, I don’t think it’s an opportune time to be protesting at retailers up to the Christmas period,” he said.
He believes discussions with processors are key to achieving the fair price of €4 a kg, adding: “I don’t think protesting at retailers is the way to do that.”
He is also aware of the possibility of a mass exodus of suckler farmers when existing schemes end next year but says those farmers need to be kept in the industry, believing the Government should be compensating farmers for maintaining the “carbon sink” or grassland and for their role in “keeping rural Ireland open”.
He also said if elected he would be putting Teagasc under pressure to do more research in relation to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
He stressed that he was the only candidate with a hard plan on how to restructure the IFA, noting how other organisations such as Beef Plan have sprang up in recent times, threatening the IFA’s role as the main representative body for farmers in the country.
“The IFA has been around for a long number of years, the IFA’s business is lobbying on behalf of farmers, and it’s time for change now again,” he said.
‘Increase farm incomes and secure fair prices’
John Coughlan is a dairy, beef, and tillage farmer who, alongside his wife Ann, and children Michael and Helena, runs a farm on which they are milking 100 cows, finishing more than 100 cattle, and growing cereals.
With 25 years of experience as an IFA campaigner, he’s filled multiple roles, from Munster IFA vice president to county chairman, livestock chair and environment chair of North Cork IFA. He has also featured on the organisation’s CAP project team.
On his campaign leaflets, he points to achievements such as a 33% cut in import tariffs on ammonium fertilisers, the €100m beef fund amount secured on the Beam scheme, and the 26% rise in compensation for farmers affected by gas infrastructure developments.
His campaign manifesto, ‘Securing the Future of Farming in Ireland’, hits many of the themes outlined by his rivals, and all are agreed that this is a perilous time for the industry and one marked more recently by increasingly militant actions.
Listing his priorities, he said he wants to increase farm incomes and secure fair prices and boost supports so farmers can secure their full schemes and entitlements, but he also said he wants to “reform the IFA to get it back working for farmers” as well as securing that elusive contract between farmers and meat processors. He also wants to drive a farmer retirement scheme while encouraging younger farmers.
Earlier this month, he found himself in the middle of the Charleville protest.
“The beef market has been moving ahead right across Europe,” he said. “It’s not over yet and it will convince the retailers that there has to be a change of mindset. Retailers do normally discount fresh food in the lead-up to Christmas and we are ensuring it does not happen.”
As for a possible suckler exodus next year, he said the IFA must ensure that those schemes are “maintained and reinvigorated” as the sector is “critical to rural Ireland”.
“It would be a job for IFA to ensure those supports are maintained,” he said.
Regarding climate change and agriculture’s role in it, he argues that, from a European point of view it can’t be looked at as a country-specific issue. If Ireland is an efficient producer of beef in terms of carbon output, then it is better to maintain that than allow imports into Europe from South America.
“As a nation, agriculture is producing over 30% of our carbon but that’s because we don’t have the heavy industries the rest of Europe have,” he said. “It’s a cheap way of attacking agriculture.”
He said a previous retirement scheme did work and would work again if introduced, as many farmers, far from the image of being slow to let go, would release the reins if they were financially secure to do.
“One of the real issues is the fact that food products have been devalued over years, consumer spending is less than 9% of income on food,” he said. “That is an issue for those of us producing that food.”
‘I will defend farming against unfair attacks’
Angus Woods, the IFA Livestock Committee Chairman since 2016, farms full-time with his family at Rathnew, Co Wicklow, where they operate a mixed enterprise farm with beef, suckler cows, sheep and barley.
He has also served as president of the European Commission’s Civil Dialogue Group on Animal Products and vice chairman of the COPA Beef Group and is a member of the EU Commission’s Meat Markets Observatory Group. On top of all this, he has represented Ireland with distinction as an international rower.
The youngest of the three candidates, he has referred to his work on the €100m Beam scheme and his efforts in securing €40m of additional money for a suckler cow support scheme as well as an increase in live exports, including exports to Turkey.
He also cited the significant reduction in the department levy on calf exports and what he described as the “naming and shaming of factories engaged in illegal trimming”.
As for his priorities, he said he would work to secure the CAP budget and, as outlined by his competitors, focus on boosting incomes.
Part of that would be a demand for a sheep welfare scheme payment of €30/ewe and a quality assurance bonus of 30c/kg, market transparency when it comes to livestock prices, and maximum inclusion of Irish grain in feed compounds and Irish spirits.
“I will defend farming against unfair attacks under the banner of climate action,” he said.
In October, Woods was re-elected chairman of the EU Commission Civil Dialogue Group on Animal Products.
He said: “I look forward to continuing to drive the agenda on behalf of farmers at the highest levels in Europe.”
In an interview with the Bray People in September, he looked back at his younger days as a rower,including winning selection for the 1989 junior World Championships while still in sixth year at King’s Hospital secondary school.
He also won an IFA scholarship to the agricultural college at Gurteen, while in the boat he went on to represent Ireland at the senior World Championships — early European experience — although he described the difference in preparation between the Irish team and the defending champions, Italy.
“They went to Saint Moritz to train while we went to Galway, where we were blown out of it for four weeks,” he said.
He still rows on the Liffey every Sunday morning and told his local paper: “We do need activities outside the farm gate to keep the head right. I am totally immersed in agriculture, so for me to have breakfast every Sunday morning with a bunch of non-farmers who throw a different slant on it is good.”
As for the top job, the man yet to celebrate his 50th birthday said: “It is a young person’s game and it is demanding.”
