Heydon looking forward to the challenge

Martin Heydon has been appointed a minister of state in the Department of Agriculture. The Kildare South TD has been given responsibility for research and development, farm safety, and new market development.

Heydon told the Irish Farmers Journal: “Farming is close to my heart, I’m a farmer myself.”

The new minister of state attended Kildalton Agricultural College before drystock farming in Calverstown, Co Kildare.

We are starting from a very good base, and Ireland’s farmers are up for the challenge

He said: “I am looking forward to tackling a challenging range of responsibilities. Research and development will be crucial as farming adapts to meet the environmental and market challenges facing it.

“We need technological solutions and to establish best practice to maximise efficiency and minimise resource use. We are starting from a very good base, and Ireland’s farmers are up for the challenge.

“We have always been adapting and improving. For instance, in the 1970s, we were using 2m tonnes of chemical fertiliser a year. We have reduced that to 1.5m tonnes/annum while increasing our output.”

Farm safety

On farm safety, Heydon said: “I’m a father of three children growing up on a farm, my wife Brianne is also from a farm, so we are very aware of the risks and danger that are ever present on a farm. The biggest danger is dropping your guard, so we have to educate farmers and work with them to be ever alert and to assess the dangers and minimise risk every time they do a job on the farm.”

In terms of the new market development role, Heydon said that with Brexit looming, it’s crucial that we continue to establish new customers and new markets for Irish food.

“We have a great product to sell, and we have been expanding in Asia, in north Africa and the US. Even a relatively good Brexit deal will have a negative effect on our largest market, so there is an urgency to this task, one I am looking forward to giving leadership to.

“Kildare has not had a minister since Charlie McCreevey. I’m delighted to be bucking that trend,” he added. The 41-year-old has been a TD since 2011, and most recently has been the Fine Gael parliamentary party chair.

On the coalition, Heydon said he was looking forward to working with new Minister for Agriculture Barry Cowen and fellow minister of state Pippa Hackett in the Department of Agriculture. “Barry Cowen and myself were elected to the Dáil together in 2011, and I will be fully supportive of him in his role, which is so important for the future of Irish farming. We are one Government now, and our sole focus will be on meeting the considerable challenges of Brexit, CAP reform, and above all, addressing the low incomes of too many of our farms while tackling the environmental challenges which must be met, and will be met.”