New IFA president tells Achill meeting too many politicians ‘don't give a toss about farming’

THE new President of the Irish Farmers Association has called on all farmers to get out and vote in this summer’s Local and European Elections to ensure candidates sympathetic to farming are elected.
Francie Gorman made the comments during a meeting with farmers in Achill this afternoon (Thursday) ahead of the AGM of Mayo IFA in Castlebar.
The meeting heard of a number of concerns facing hill farmers in Achill, including land designation, late payments for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) as well as farmers being penalised for fires on commonage areas.
Speaking to the farmers in Ted’s Bar in Cashel, Mr Gorman – a suckler and sheep farmer from Co Laois – said that recent farming protests in Europe have shown that politicians are now starting ‘to sit up and take note’ of farmers.
He added that at the moment there are too many elected politicians who do not care about farming and that more farmer friendly candidates need to be elected.
“When it comes to the elections I am saying to everyone in this room to cast your vote. There is no excuse for not doing it. We have too many people in public life who don’t give a toss about farming and it is an issue for us that we no longer have enough TDs and MEPs who really care about farming.
“We have a chance at election time and every person in rural Ireland who feels strongly enough on the issues you raised here to go out and vote. We are not telling you to vote for one crowd over another, but I am saying try to engage with your election candidates and if you feel that the issues that we are looking to get resolved are being taken on board then they are the people to vote for,” he said.
The meeting was also attended by Jarlath Walsh, the outgoing Chairman of Mayo IFA as well as Brendan Golden, the Chairman of Connacht IFA, as well as Cáillin Conneely, the Chair of the IFA Hill Farming Committee.
Mr Gorman said he was delighted to travel to Achill to listen to the concerns of hill farmers and as President he ‘100 percent values’ the type of farming done in areas like Achill, saying it has to be preserved and supported.

Face-to-face meetings
Mr Golden said the delay in payments for the ACRES scheme was a disgrace and it showed a complete lack of understanding from civil servants who did not understand the importance to families of receiving the money on time.
He added that under his tenure as President, senior civil servants in the Department of Agriculture will not have it their own way.
“It started with Covid when they [civil servants] stopped having meetings face to face, and a band of senior civil servants inside the department felt they could do what they liked. There was no consultation or face to face meetings.
“The last two budgets submissions – even though the country was opened up – were done online with the Minister for Public Expenditure and the Minister for Finance. That is not good enough. If they want to meet us on budget issues they will have to sit down and meet us face to face.
“They have got into a comfort zone of doing what they like and not being held to account by people sitting across the table from them. There is no doubt the turnout [at recent IFA protests] and what’s gone on in Europe has made them sit up a little bit. They cannot take us for granted,” he said.