The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has announced that it is to increase its membership fees by €25 and family membership by €10.

The IFA said that inflation is pushing up costs significantly, which is bringing challenges in continuing to deliver services.

The most recent membership increase was in 2019. The IFA said that prior to this, the last membership increase was 2013.

Accounts

Accounts for the IFA for the year to the end of March 2023 show the organisation had an operating surplus of €194,571 - a drop of more than €450,000 from the previous year.

The association had membership contributions of €10.33m, up from €9.46m in 2022. Trust fund contributions doubled to €663,757, while investment dividend income was at €458,812.

Outgoing president Tim Cullinan’s salary remained capped at €139,836 - including other directorship payments - while director general Damian McDonald saw an 11.9% salary increase to €216,000 plus pension.

The increase had been flagged in 2022. Overall staff costs increased by €700,000 to €5.7m.

Other notable expense increases during the year were voluntary costs which were €450,000 higher at €1.04m.

These costs reflect expense costs incurred by members during the year and the rise can be explained by the end of COVID-19 restrictions in the year to March 2023 when compared with the previous period.

The end of COVID-19 restrictions also saw an increase in public relations expenditure.

Overall, expenditure for the year was €1.78m higher than 2022, with the total of almost €17m in line with pre-COVID-19 spending levels.

The income statement for the year also included a “fair value gain on investments” of €1.57m linked to shares held in publicly quoted companies.

Taking that into account and allowing for taxation charges, the total surplus for the year was €1.318m, some €554,000 lower than 2022.

Bad connection

The one bit of bad news for the IFA that stands out in the accounts is the performance of IFA Telecom. As presented in the IFA accounts, the company made a loss for the year of €136.

Looking at Figure 1 and using figures presented by the IFA since 2016, it is clear that the phone company has seen falling surpluses for six of the last seven years, with the trend very much in one direction.

It seems that this is something the organisation will have to address before it starts to become an even bigger liability when the IFA’s operating surplus is already looking a little thin.