Trevor Quinn went along to Balla Mart last Saturday to see what matters are dominating the public’s mindset ahead of Friday’s General Election and found polarised opinion
Hundreds of farmers descended on Balla Mart intent on securing the best deal for their stock on Saturday last. As election day approaches priorities were very much to the fore as cows were being paraded around the ring. As one farmer put it, “You have to keep moving. If you get a few good prices today that’s what matters”.
Paddy Joyce from Carrowholly in Westport is very aggrieved with the current political administration and he is very much in favour of more independent voices in Leinster House. “They’re not looking after the people, look at the state of the country”. Joyce is an advocate of new left-wing alliances like the Mayo Reform Movement.
Joyce said he would have issues with a Fine Gael/Labour coalition due to the similarities in their policy agendas, especially with regard to the IMF bailout. Joyce said he expects Fine Gael to be in government, and he thinks a strong independent presence in partnership with Fine Gael would get the best results. “We need people to negotiate for the country and represent the people who voted for them,” he says.
Oliver Connor from Corbally in Claremorris doesn’t believe Labour’s policies are focused enough.
“I don’t think Labour’s policies are strong enough. They spend too much time criticising Fine Gael.”
Connor is equally as discrediting to Eamon Gilmore’s performance as leader in recent weeks. “He keeps switching. It’s one thing today and then it’s something else tomorrow.”
Connor would like to see a Fine Gael led government adding: “I’d like to get those shower out (Fianna Fáil) anyway”. He was optimistic about a new government under the leadership of Enda Kenny and when asked if he had faith in a new Dáil to rectify the enormous economic challenges that lie ahead, he said: “Definitely I do yeah, and I think Enda Kenny is stronger than people think. I think now anyway, I may be wrong but I hope I’m right.”
The lack of trust in the current administration was a recurring theme with farmers in Balla. John Spellman, a native of Doocastle in Charlestown said: “They didn’t take a blind bit of notice of us this last ten years and we have survived bad prices, BSE, bad weather. They didn’t give two damns about us because the economy was booming. Now they’re beginning to start taking notice of us with the election coming up because they want votes.”
Spellman said it was vitally important that the Single Farm Payment was retained with the redistribution favouring the primary producer, and he also called for the introduction of a new REPS scheme. Speaking about the unfairness of a system where eighty per cent of EU farmer subsidies go to twenty per cent of the farmers, Spellman questioned the fact that some large-scale farmers were receiving more than €500,000 while other small to medium sized farmers were struggling to make ends meet.
Foxford native Michael Lavin says that the EU policy decisions have driven up prices to an unsustainable level. “I don’t think it’s right that farmers should be getting all of this from Europe because all it’s doing is putting up the prices. You go in to the Mart here today and you’re not getting the true price that the animal is worth. Let the economics work itself through demand and supply.”
Lavin also believes that people are far too inclined to blame politicians for the country’s economic woes. “I don’t blame the politicians at all. I blame the bankers and I blame us. Not a person cribbed from 2000 until 2007 when they were making a load of money.”
Lavin says the spending habits and this ‘keeping up with the Jones’ mentality resulted in the difficulties we face today. “Everybody was doing it, now they’re holding, holding, holding,” he said. “Nobody cared. Everybody was delighted with Bertie Ahern and Cowen. I think that Fianna Fáil have done the best job that they could have done in the circumstances, and I don’t think anybody else is going to change that.”