Election 2020: what do farmers want from the next Government?

Elphin mart manager, Co Roscommon

“We need change. We need a good man in as Minister for Agriculture, that’s very important. We feel that we have been let down in the last few years with the way farming is going. We need to get young people back into farming and that means better subsidies to encourage them back in. Above all, we need the suckler cow kept in the west, to produce the store for farmers in all parts of Ireland.”

Elphin, Co Roscommon

“The election has been a mixed bag. Our biggest problem at home is convergence, our payments have been cut by 30% in the last few years. In the policies put forward by different parties there were some for and against it. There’s productive farmers in the country and they seem to be taking the biggest hit. A retirement scheme for older farmers would also help because there’s only one or two young farmers around the ring.”

Eslin, Co Leitrim

“We don’t know what the election will mean until there’s a government formed. Hopefully there will be something stable and one that has a long-term plan for sucklers. We want to stay farming here. Sometimes there’s too much emphasis on the green thing, maybe it’s being pushed possibly too far. There’s a lot you can do within the farmgate yourself but a suckler cow subsidy would be great, whether it’ll happen or not time will tell.”

Mohill, Co Leitrim

“Whoever does get into power would want to support the suckler farmer in the west of Ireland. There’s no heed being paid to it at the moment – it is forgotten about. Leo Varadkar didn’t want to know about us at all, he tried to close us down. The suckler farmer will be gone if they [the next government] don’t act. We can’t keep selling cattle at a loss, it won’t work. They’ll all make promises but who’ll deliver? We’ll see.”