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The current generation of young farmers is being betrayed by the Government, according to Independent TD for Laois-Offaly Carol Nolan.
Deputy Nolan has said that she fully supports the decision by Macra to engage in a number of days of action, culminating in the presentation at Government buildings on 26 April of a series of proposals to tackle the challenges facing rural youth.
Macra members will march from Athy to Dublin on Tuesday 25 April, arriving at Government buildings on Wednesday afternoon, after walking through the night.
Deputy Nolan said she is particularly concerned by Macra’s analysis, which suggests that there has been no meaningful engagement or recognition by Government on a farming succession scheme.
Inertia
“As an organisation, Macra represents a vibrant and energetic community of 10,000 young people from rural Ireland, who, it has to be said, are being betrayed by the soul-destroying inertia and policy failures of this and previous governments,” she said.
“Young farmers and rural young people desperately want to contribute to the rural economy and to put down roots in the communities that they love, but, unfortunately, those aspirations are being curtailed or obstructed at every turn due to an unwieldy and inflexible planning system, the imposition of quotas on young farmers and a chronic absence of rural transport links, as well as the decision to rewet enormous tracts of rural land.”
If the Irish family farm and Irish agriculture is to have any future at all, then Government and policy makers must engage with representative bodies such as Macra and they must take the action required that will enable a new generation of young people to make a living in the very rural communities this Government says it is committed to, she said.
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