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IFA president Francie Gorman Alamy Stock Photo

IFA president says cutting farm production would be 'national sabotage'

Gorman welcomed the Irish government’s stated intention to oppose the Eu-Mercosur deal.

THE PRESIDENT OF the Irish Farmers’ Association has said that reducing farming output and food production would amount to “national sabotage” and that Irish farmers need “a new deal”. 

During a speech at the 70th AGM of the IFA today, Francie Gorman gave an overview of the farming lobby’s efforts in 2024 while also looking ahead to issues facing the industry this year, with newly elected executive branches in Ireland, the EU and the United States. 

“Our objective was to ensure that farming would be front and centre in the various election campaigns. By any measure, I think we achieved that,” Gorman said at the annual meeting today. 

Food production 

“Cutting back on farm output and food production would be national sabotage,” he said.

“Global demand for meat and dairy is growing. If we don’t produce it here, it will be produced in other countries with a much bigger environmental impact,” Gorman said. 

He claimed that over the course of the last five years, “the EU Commission and the Irish government have implemented policies that reduced production”. 

“This has to stop,” he said, adding that rhetoric from Dublin and Brussels “appears to have changed”. 

“But it must be backed by real intent and real money.

“The cost of doing business and regulation is frustrating farmers and further adding to our cost base,” Gorman said.

He quoted a paper produced by the IFA “that shows costs on farms have risen by nearly 75% in the last seven years”.

“At the same time, farm incomes have fallen by 34%. It’s an issue that the new Government must tackle,” he said. 

“We need a new deal for farmers.”

He added that the IFA has seen “a dangerous shift away from supporting food production”.

Gorman also said that the last EU Commission became “detached from farmers and in many ways detached from reality”, making specific refernce to the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy, which he said had “raided” funding for farmers for the sake of climate change policies. 

He stated that climate policy funding should be separated from money for the agricultural sector.

The agriculture sector was the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions last year, making up 34.3% of Ireland’s emissions.

And though agriculture emissions fell by 4.6% in 2023 when compared to 2022, that represents only a 2.9% fall in emissions since 2018.

The Climate Change Advisory Council’s latest progress report on the 2024 Climate Action Plan highlighted continued progress towards Ireland’s climate targets but cautioned that there is still work to be done when it comes to organic farming.

Mercosur

An issue of major concern for farmers in Ireland and across the European Union is the newly signed deal with Mercosur countries in South America, which Gorman said the EU Commission had “rammed through”. 

Gorman welcomed the Irish government’s stated intention to oppose the deal, which is yet to be green lit by the EU Parliament. 

“We have a fight on our hands to get the deal blocked. But it is a fight we are up for,” he said. 

The EU Commission said yesterday that it plans to set up a one billion euro “reserve” for European farmers that might be negatively impacted by the trade deal, which is also deeply unpopular in other member states. 

Gorman said the Irish government must work with other member states “to build support to reject the deal”. 

“The manoeuvre by Ursula von der Leyen last month was a bad start for the new Commission. 

“We don’t want vague promises of ‘compensation’. We don’t want a Sell Out. We want a level playing field,” he said, adding that the issue would be raised with the new EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen during his visit to Ireland tomorrow.

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