Minister Heydon wants to change ‘bleak’ narrative around farming

The new Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and the Marine Martin Heydon wants to change the outlook away from what is, in his own words, a “pretty bleak narrative at the minute”.

In his first major interview with the Irish Farmers Journal since his appointment, the Kildare man said that he wants to talk to consumers who don’t understand farming to make them proud of Ireland’s food production systems; to make them realise that the innovation, the ingenuity and the resilience of our farmers is something to be very proud of.

Commenting on the current uneasy global political climate, Minister Heydon said there is good reason for Ireland to be very cautious and to be mindful of external pressures.

“There are always trade disputes and pressures that come and go. But if anything, current instability leads me to reflect on is how important our agricultural industry is to our indigenous economy.

“I need to convince some of my colleagues in government and around the country who maybe get wrapped up in corporation tax and foreign direct investment of that,” he said.

The discussion around whether flat area-based payments are good for Irish farming will be the “question of our time”, Minister Heydon added.

“I really want to work collaboratively across the board with our farming organisations and representative bodies.

“This will be a key area that I would love to debate properly, to talk about the pros and cons and all of those challenges in making sure we get that balance right.

“We’re talking here about the important societal role agriculture plays, the economic role, getting that balance right.

“I don’t have a fixed view on it at present, people might think I have because of where I come from,” he said, in reference to Kildare as a productive, intensive farming county.

“I’ve made the point previously that farmers have been very frustrated for some time.

“I’m very frustrated, we’ve seen the eroding of CAP from what it was originally set up to do.

“That came about because of complacency in Europe and other European member states.

“I would say my party, Fine Gael, and the outgoing government I was part of, didn’t have any such complacency.

“After Brexit, Enda Kenny called on EU members who were net contributors to pay more into the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) so that we could maintain the CAP,” he said.

“We need countries representing 35% of the EU’s population opposed to Mercosur to block it. Ireland has 1% of the EU’s population, we have allied ourselves, and this is Ireland’s strength after Brexit, it has made us much more agile.

“It has made us recognise we need alliances in lots of different areas, whether that’s consolidated tax or whether it’s the likes of nitrates. Different countries have different interests, and you align with the ones that have a similar share of views.

“There’s no doubt France share our view. Austria and others are in play. Simon Harris, as minister with special responsibility for trade, will be engaging very closely with those countries.

“The [European] Commission is still going through the legal text. A detailed engagement with stakeholders will follow. Only then, many months down the line, will there be a vote on this among the member states.

“Ireland’s five million people doesn’t have a huge impact, but we do have a disproportionately strong voice at the European table as a well-established, long, lasting member of the European Union.

“And will be using that voice. I’ll be using it in the agriculture space, the Tánaiste will be using it in the trade and foreign affairs space. And the Taoiseach will be using it as well, we’ll all have the green jersey on.

“The beef industry probably can take the hit and it not be the end of the industry.

“The bigger issue I see is that it will be really difficult to secure farmer buy-in in the future on environmental measures, if they see us speaking out of both sides of our mouth.

“That is going to be a problem. Everything I’m focused on doing as Minister for Agriculture is to bring our farmers along with us.”

Minister Heydon said that he will be articulating the efforts Irish farmers are making about improving water quality when it comes to the renewal of the nitrates derogation.

“Because that is at the heart of it, we’re not folding our arms. We have the Farming for Water scheme up and running, the EIP with €60m, we have significant investments being made across farms. We continue to support farmers in increasing storage and a range of different measures there.

“Ultimately, I’ll be telling the story around how the loss of the derogation would create so much pressure on land availability for all sectors, it goes much broader than just the 7,000 derogation farmers. And you know what we’ve seen firsthand? We had Commission officials from DG Environment last year, they visited a farm in Kildare. They saw first-hand how economic viability facilitates environmental investment. It is back to that point that I’ve regularly said the farmers can’t go green through the red financially.

“This isn’t a binary choice, where retaining the derogation means you’re not on for fixing water quality. We’re on for doing both.”