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Almost 250 people gathered in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy for the latest hustings, which saw Tim Cullinan come under fire from a partisan audience.
It was a home venue for Angus Woods, being the Wicklow-Wexford hustings, and it was apparent, as speaker after speaker addressed questions at Cullinan. The Tipperary man gave as good as he got in general.
One of the main criticisms targeted a primary plank of his “radical change” agenda, the splitting of the livestock committee into two new committees, one for sucklers, one for finishers.
It’s very clear that finishers and suckler farmers need each other
“There’s no division among cattle farmers, but you want to pull them apart,” said current Wexford livestock committee representative JJ Kavanagh. “I suppose you’ll be dividing the forestry committee as well - one for the lads with tall trees, and one for the lads with small trees,” he added, to the amusement of the crowd.
Cullinan explained that his proposal is to give extra representation within the IFA’s structures to the 100,000 cattle farmers in the country.
John Coughlan seemed to disagree with Cullinan’s proposal. “I sat on the livestock committee it’s very clear that finishers and suckler farmers need each other,” he said. “That committee works closely together and well.”
TB issue
TB is a big issue in Wicklow, and was raised a few times
Tim Cullinan said: “TB has been an industry for 50 years. What are the Department going to do about the deer in Wicklow?”
John Coughlan said: “It’s the same story going on for years. The wildlife are not being taken out. You see what farmers have paid into the scheme, and yet the compensation schemes are not being fully funded. That’s why I campaigned for the restoration of the animal health committee four years ago. We need to get this (TB) sorted over the next decade.”
Angus Woods said: “There is clearly an issue with deer. We can’t have a situation where the farmer contribution is rising, the Department contribution is falling, and compensation is not being funded sufficiently. We shouldn’t underestimate the mental pressure of a depopulation through TB.”
We can’t have one section of society dictating what we all eat
Tom Doyle raised an RTE programme where what he described as a “panel of so-called experts” advised not to eat beef more than once a week.
Tim Cullinan responded: “We can’t have one section of society dictating what we all eat. Irish farmers are being blamed for climate change. It’s not good enough for John Fitzgerald [chair of the Climate Change Advisory Committee] to say that we have to get rid of half our suckler herd. We have to fight that.”
John Coughlan said: “Thirty years ago it was dairy under attack. Butter was bad. It led to the dairy spreads. Now, lo and behold, butter is back as more healthy. It’s important we take on our own experts to provide the real information.”
Angus Woods added: “We have to be able to relay our message to the general public, to the consumer. We had a rower who was testing poorly for his strength and recovery levels; he was a vegertarian. He was told if he wanted to stay on the team, he would have to eat meat. You know what, when it came to missing the world championships or eating meat, he ate meat.”
The tillage sector was inevitably raised.
Tillage
John Coughlan said: “We need to separate Irish grain from imports through labelling to create a price differential.”
Angus Woods: “We must protect grain farmers’ payments. That will be critical, as will protein crop payments.”
Tim Cullinan said: “Grain farmers are not getting a price until it’s tipped into the merchant’s yard. They should be getting a price when they’re putting the seed in.”
Deputy presidential campaign
Earlier, the deputy presidential candidates lashed into Bord Bia, which has come under fire from the floor if not the top table every single night of the hustings.
@brianrushe81 "I've lost all confidence in Bord Bia to deliver for the farmer". @tomcoon2000 "I agree with everything Brian has said".
— Pat O Toole (@potooleifj) November 13, 2019
Another tough night for @Bordbia at IFA hustings. Labelling, particularly Bord Bia labelling of product containing imported meat, is a problem
Both Brian Rushe and Thomas Cooney again impressed. In relation to the carbon footprint of farming, Cooney said: “We can drive down emissions without cutting back on production. But we need a whole of Government approach.”
Cooney added that the Teagasc carbon roadmap needs to be fully implemented, with progress needed on bioenergy and renewables.
Rushe responded: “I was talking to a farmer from west Cork. For years the message has been drive on production, output per ha, now all of a sudden it’s carbon footprint. ‘I have whiplash,’ he [the Cork farmer] said. That’s exactly right, that’s the scale of the turnabout,” concluded Rushe.
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