The IFA president Francie Gorman was very frank and clear in his address to the IFA Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday. His frustration at the operation and delivery of the ACRES environmental scheme was evident, calling for a fundamental review of the scheme. He is consistent on this and had a similar message at the IFA Summit in the Curragh 2024. The other consistency is his line on CAP funding – “there must be no more raiding of the CAP funds – the CAP has to get back to its roots, support food production, and be properly funded to do so”.

Perhaps his strongest words for the new minister (as yet unknown when he delivered his speech) were reserved for the potential changes in conditionality on GAEC 2 – for those farming on peat soils. He said: “This will be a huge issue for the new minister but a sensible solution was needed to allow thousands of farmers to make a living on these soils.”

Gorman called out the imbalance between environmental, economic and social policy, suggesting that reducing emissions by reducing production is as big a folly as reducing emissions by importing electricity. Despite the visit of the new European Commissioner to the IFA AGM, Gorman didn’t hold back in his criticism of the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen as she ‘joined hands with the Mercosur leaders to proclaim the good news’. He said before Christmas she rammed through a deal with the Mercosur countries and we have a fight on our hands to get the deal blocked, but it is a fight we are up for.