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THE PRESIDENT OF the Irish Farmers’ Association has said that reducing farming output and food production would amount to “national sabotage” and that Irish farmers need “a new deal”.
During a speech at the 70th AGM of the IFA today, Francie Gorman gave an overview of the farming lobby’s efforts in 2024 while also looking ahead to issues facing the industry this year, with newly elected executive branches in Ireland, the EU and the United States.
“Our objective was to ensure that farming would be front and centre in the various election campaigns. By any measure, I think we achieved that,” Gorman said at the annual meeting today.
“Cutting back on farm output and food production would be national sabotage,” he said.
“Global demand for meat and dairy is growing. If we don’t produce it here, it will be produced in other countries with a much bigger environmental impact,” Gorman said.
He claimed that over the course of the last five years, “the EU Commission and the Irish government have implemented policies that reduced production”.
“This has to stop,” he said, adding that rhetoric from Dublin and Brussels “appears to have changed”.
“But it must be backed by real intent and real money.
“The cost of doing business and regulation is frustrating farmers and further adding to our cost base,” Gorman said.
He quoted a paper produced by the IFA “that shows costs on farms have risen by nearly 75% in the last seven years”.
“At the same time, farm incomes have fallen by 34%. It’s an issue that the new Government must tackle,” he said.
“We need a new deal for farmers.”
He added that the IFA has seen “a dangerous shift away from supporting food production”.
Gorman also said that the last EU Commission became “detached from farmers and in many ways detached from reality”, making specific refernce to the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy, which he said had “raided” funding for farmers for the sake of climate change policies.
He stated that climate policy funding should be separated from money for the agricultural sector.
And though agriculture emissions fell by 4.6% in 2023 when compared to 2022, that represents only a 2.9% fall in emissions since 2018.
The Climate Change Advisory Council’s latest progress report on the 2024 Climate Action Plan highlighted continued progress towards Ireland’s climate targets but cautioned that there is still work to be done when it comes to organic farming.
An issue of major concern for farmers in Ireland and across the European Union is the newly signed deal with Mercosur countries in South America, which Gorman said the EU Commission had “rammed through”.
Gorman welcomed the Irish government’s stated intention to oppose the deal, which is yet to be green lit by the EU Parliament.
“We have a fight on our hands to get the deal blocked. But it is a fight we are up for,” he said.
The EU Commission said yesterday that it plans to set up a one billion euro “reserve” for European farmers that might be negatively impacted by the trade deal, which is also deeply unpopular in other member states.
Gorman said the Irish government must work with other member states “to build support to reject the deal”.
“The manoeuvre by Ursula von der Leyen last month was a bad start for the new Commission.
“We don’t want vague promises of ‘compensation’. We don’t want a Sell Out. We want a level playing field,” he said, adding that the issue would be raised with the new EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen during his visit to Ireland tomorrow.
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Ireland, take note.
@Jeff Regan: we don’t have open borders. We have a strict rules based immigration system. Plus in June’s Local Elections all the far right candidates received less than 1% support.
@Pat Hazzard: We may as-well have open borders if you can arrive in the country without a passport and apply for “asylum”. Not to mention the fact that no deportation orders are actually enforced, which is beyond ludicrous. The situation has been going from bad to worse throughout Europe (apart from in Poland and Hungary, unsurprisingly) and will continue to worsen until governments wise up and face reality. Something has to change and drastically so.
@Mike: Under UN Convention for Refugees a person is entitled to claim asylum. Thankfully for our democracy over 99% of the electorate rejected far right loons
@Pat Hazzard: Ok Paid government commenter
@Pat Hazzard: LOL
@Pat Hazzard: If you really believe in the stance you’re taking, you are a halfwit I’m afraid. If you are a paid shill on the other hand, whoever is paying you is a halfwit because nobody here is buying the nonsense you’re trying to sell.
@Freda Peeple: There are a few of them on this site, I suspect they are all the one!
@Pat Hazzard: 70% of the same electorate have concerns regarding our asylum policy and 60% support the call for tighter measures concerning it. (Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll). The fact that we as a nation rejected some far-right headbangers does not detract from this.
You’re repeated failure to be in any way honest about any situation in this country marks you out for the FF shill that you are.
@Mike: ha! Someone disagrees with you and they’re a “paid shill” – pathetic
@M To The B: Maybe read what other posters are also saying. Maybe look back over said alleged shill’s posts before you try to make any kind of comment. You might not be stupid but trust me, you are looking pretty stupid right now. Also, please explain which points I have made above that you might disagree with… and explain why, if you are able.
@Pat Hazzard: I’ll hazard a guess not many will agree with you
@Pat Hazzard: most are not true asylum seekers. Who here can verify the lies ? Many who are sent back simply swan odd into that society as nothing has happened .
No one is waiting to persecute them
@Pat Hazzard: You are really an amazing braindead. This issue is NOT a far right issue at all. Everyone with 2 braincells (you have likely only one) understands that having thousands upon thousands of arrivals of undocumented migrants or already processed one in other EU countries is a big problem. The border is fully open with the UK.
@Pat Hazzard: they are menat to claim it jn the first safe country they enter, not hop traverse Europe to the land of milk and honey, get off a plane with no documents amd claim asylum. Time we adopt the Australian approach, no documentation, held in a holding complex and back on the next plane from the country they arrived from
@Freda Peeple: Do a quick check of the figures yourself. He’s not wrong.
@Pat Hazzard: BS, we might as well have open borders. The country is being destroyed. Doctors and Engineers they said!
Ireland doesn’t want the apple 14 billion to help it’s own people, 15 thousand homeless and Irish children in that statistic but FF/FG will spend what it takes to help Ukraine and African people have a home….please explain?
@Dan The Man: Why do people keep on saying that as though the government doesn’t want to take more money in to improve the country? Corporation tax this year is on course to come in at €30bn! Apple are the largest tax payer out of all of that. The government want companies investing in Ireland to have confidence and stability in their investment. The money being brought in these days dwarfs any apple tax case. Thats without salaries and all of the ancillary spending that goes with having global MNCs here. That’s why the government took the case with apple, to ensure that more money is available for future improvements not less. But lots of people just live to shout from the rooftops looking to shoot themselves and everyone else in the country in both feet just for a bit of attention seeking in their sideline sowing discontent.
@John Moore: why not give all companies that same sweetheart deal Apple got. Ireland got caught with its pants down by Europe and got spanked big time. Not that it will matter. FG would literally give the money back to apple rather then help Irish people. Working class people didn’t hang around to vote FF/FG out and emigrated in the biggest numbers since 2015 to earn their proper value abroad. The dole heads and wealthy make up majority of Ireland now which suits the current government.
@Dan The Man: because Ireland government, keep follow /copy /paste UK immigration policy.
Same as voters they keep vote FFG then complaining why no change.
@John Moore: Define “dwarfs” … 13 bn is over 1/3 of 30 bn.
Were your income to shrink by that portion, you’d hardly call it ‘dwarf’.
@Dan The Man: not really, the French had a lower rate of corporation tax once you take in to account some of the loop-hopes and concessions they had, not to sure if they still exist, but it was pointed out I think by David mac Williams that some companies were paying at low as 7.5% but on average it was 10/11%
Merkel destroyed Europe
@Freda Peeple: What do you miss from the pre Merkel era?
UK grant free online visa to Jordan.
Ireland has 900 + asylum applications from same Jordaniam UK visa holders .
Why ?
@sakk sa: land of milk and honey
Go Germany
Merkel really left her country in a mess,
MAYBE PUT IMMIGRANTS ON RYAN AIR FLIGHTS FOR ACCESS TO IRISH AIRPORTS ! WHERE ARE THE BOARDING CHECKS ? O’Leary always Whinging about being hard done by, Well Michael ol’ Chap I feel a little hard done by Myself with people flying through the net into this Country.
@James Keogh:
Ask any airport police man.
They get rid of their passports in bins, in toilets. before they get to imagination gate.
Ryanair have recently started photocopying their passports at the checkin desk.
Asalamalakim lefties.
I see many are equating this move by Germany with what is happening in Ireland.
Nothing could further from the truth.
Apart from a few miles on the Baltic, Germany is landlocked
Other than the temporary line in the North East, Ireland does not share a land border with anyone, so nobody can just aimlessly wander about and end up in the country..
@Garry Coll:
Those who arrive into Ireland, destroying their passports and ID along the way, are recruited and trafficked into the country in a deliberate fashion.
That neither the Journal nor any other “reputable” Irish journalist or media outlet is willing to investigate and report on it is a bit of a disgrace really.
@Garry Coll: by who and why ? I bet you can’t answer.
@Garry Coll: … not sure why you are dismissing Germany’s North Sea coastline, but there you go.
@Athena: I actually had to look it up as I wasn’t sure, but yes, Germany’s coastline is longer than Ireland’s.
@Athena:
Germany has no issue with it’s coastline, and neither does Ireland.
No undocumented migrants are arriving into Ireland by sea.
Germany’s issue is with it’s land border, Ireland’s issue is those recruited abroad and trafficking into the country on chartered flights.
@Garry Coll: Having lived in Germany in the 1960s to late 1990s, I am in a position to appreciate its geographical positioning.
I agree, Ireland’s borders, land, sea and air entry should be easily policed.
On the other hand, migrants to Germany after WWII were encouraged and welcomed.
While there were integration issues with all persons of one cohort, migration was never an issue until the mass migration waves.
And it’s the MASS aspect politicians need to address.
@Athena:
Agreed.
@Garry Coll:
Have the people entering N
I. And heading south been stopped yet.
Looks like we’re coming to the end of Freedom of Movement policy, thanks to the anti-freedom crowd. First they restrict immigration, then emigration. If it was hard to emigrate abroad before, it will become next to impossible after this, we will be locked in within our borders for life. A majority were far right before and it can happen again, and it’s beginning l with the Germany again..?
@9QRixo8H: Not sure what you are referring to but prior to ‘open border’ policies in the EEC, while there were border controls (and yes, shock horror, the border police was allowed to search your car), nobody’s freedom to move was restricted. Not for daily travel, not for holidays, not for emigration.
Are you sure you’re not mixing up ‘rights’ with ‘entitlement’?
@9QRixo8H: it is refreshing to have your sensible analysis amid all the hate speech. Free movement of people is one of the pillar values of the EU. The benefits of the EU economically, socially and politically are the reason member states agree to work together and compromise sovereignty. Putin’s Russia, China and the wars of the US are cautionary examples to be avoided. The economic and climate migration towards the human rights based EU countries has been mismanaged by the EU in trying to push back poor and desperate people into intolerable lives. The EU has the wealth if not the will to resolve these problems if only it can distribute the economic benefits in wages and welfare that are being hoarded by the 1%. Otherwise all that will emerge is another Big Brother dictatorship.
@Feargal De Cantuin: free movement of EU citizens yes- this is more than that
@Feargal De Cantuin: Good point, Mr, Hazzard….. NOT. Get a new sock account, troll boy…. Lollllllll boy.
@9QRixo8H: Not really tho, I think the reactions are always sensational. Germany is the third largest economy in the world’ ffs. Most germans are doing great, Irish peasants love to gleefully jump on bandwagons, moving around Europe will be just fine… for Europeans.
What does it matter if they’re in line? Who’s gonna stop them?
@Louis Jacob: we built this city on rock and roll! (sing your lines then mine)
@William Ryan: lol
There are no direct flights from any so called dangerous country’s, the chances are leaving safe European states
to get here.
The loud minority will be pleased.
have your say