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Membership of the IFA has held steady on 2016 levels, the association’s 2017 annual report shows.
The annual report was revealed at the IFA’s AGM at the Irish Farm Centre on Tuesday.
It showed that in 2017, there were 72,346 members who could vote in the IFA, down marginally on 2016 when there were 73,546 voting members.
Membership accounts for 65% of the IFA’s operational income.
Meanwhile, when asked if ABP, one of the biggest meat processors in the country, was collecting European Involvement Fund (EIF) levies for the IFA, Healy told the Irish Farmers Journal: “No, but we haven’t met ABP yet in relation to this, but the intention is to meet with them.”
Healy said that financially, it has been a challenging year for IFA.
“Farmers continue to support us and this is evident in our membership figures holding up.
“For the IFA to be able to do our work effectively, we need all farmers to be making a full contribution to the association.
“Many farmers pay membership and levies to the IFA, and contribute huge amounts of their time to work on behalf of their fellow farmers.
“The IFA needs to be properly resourced by farmers so we can operate without fear or favour.
“During 2018, the association put a three-year plan in place to close the current deficit and return to a balanced outcome over the next three years.
“This will involve a combination of rebuilding our income and reducing costs,” Healy said.
Three-year plan
Commenting on the three-year plan, Healy said the start of the plan was to meet with the levy collectors, to formalise a plan, put it in place and have a lot more transparency around all aspects of the plan.
“That’s in place, a number of them have signed up to it but it’s a process that will be ongoing this week after the AGM and it will continue.
“In relation to membership, even when I go back to my own campaign and talking to farmers, they wanted a strong, well-resourced organisation to represent their interests at national and at EU level.
“Farmers appreciate that on the ground, but they know that they have to resource the organisation for their sectors to be represented.”
Healy said that job cuts and redundancies are not part of the three-year plan.
Director general of the IFA, Damien McDonald, said that the annual report shows membership figures have held very solid.
“The idea of having a three-year plan was to have, rather than trying to rush in and solve the deficit in a year and cut the services, a structured approach over three years to get back to a balanced budget.
“Obviously levies are part of it but we’re looking at costs, we’re looking at every area where we can do things more efficiently and every area where we can possibly raise more income as well.”
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