The prevalence of forestry in Co. Leitrim and accusations that the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has “gone soft” when it comes to the climate debate, dominated discussion at the association’s election hustings in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim this week (Wednesday, October 18).
Vice presidential candidates, Alice Doyle and Pat Murphy first took to the podium to speak, followed by questions from the audience of IFA members.
This was followed by speeches and comments from the presidential candidates, Martin Stapleton and Francie Gorman.
Many voices from the floor criticised the IFA for being “far too soft” in defending farming and the production of food as part of the climate change argument.
Farmers commented that they feel vilified in public discourse and that an organisation (IFA), which was once one of the strongest lobbying forces in Ireland, now holds no weight with the government.
“The negotiation that has been done over the last four years has been deplorable… the way we have been treated as farmers, and the way our livelihood has been kicked away from us…” one member told the candidates.
One farmer accused the government of having an “anti-farming and anti-livestock agenda” and criticised the IFA’s communications strategy, or lack thereof, in terms of defending farmers and changing public perception of the sector.
There was also strong criticism from the audience of what was described as “the outrageous salaries” for some of the association’s top executives.
Presidential candidate, Martin Stapleton told the audience that the IFA simply had to meet its contractual obligations in respect of salaries for staff.
He said the only reason the salary remuneration was not on the National Council meeting agenda at the time of approval was “so that the press wouldn’t going looking for information behind the scenes and put pressure for a leak”.
“We announced it exactly in accordance with what council asked the Remuneration Committee to do in 2016,” Stapleton said.
“I know the scale of the increase bothered people, but all we did was, we honoured the contract at the end of the day.”
Forestry raised at hustings
Many questions were asked of the election candidates about the level of forestry planting in counties such as Leitrim, with one audience member robustly stating that the whole county has been pretty much covered in forestry.
Audience members also queried whether there was any connection between companies such as AXA and FBD and investment funds such as Gresham House, which has set its sights on scooping up agricultural land for planting forestry.
The candidates said they were certainly not aware of any such association and admitted that Leitrim and the north-west area has suffered “way beyond its fair share of forestry”.
Presidential candidate Francie Gorman told the hustings audience that he didn’t “want to see any county planted out” and that the “wholesale investment” of a county for forestry must be stopped.
The hustings will continue over the coming weeks at locations across the country and the national count of votes will take place in December.