The question we need to ask

The unofficial theme of our AGM held on November 17 was: what exactly is the Government’s issue with family farms? What have we done? I believe the animosity towards us is unmistakeable.
The An Taisce action on the Nitrates Derogation is hugely symbolic of the way the Government regards farmers and has mishandled the nitrates issue. The ICMSA is a notice party to this case, due to be heard this month (December). Through its financial support of An Taisce, the State is effectively funding this legal action. The State won’t fund our legal action (farmers will have to do that themselves) but the ICMSA is happy to use our scarce resources to do so. The Irish Government is paying both sets of lawyers to prepare legal arguments for and against the policy as decided by the Irish Government. The only party to this legal case that is not sending its bill to the Irish Government is the farmers.
This is interesting because it highlights an unmistakeable trend: the rise and rise of the quangos and NGOs. By this, I am referring to what I see as the abdication of the civil service in the formulation of policy, and the rise of NGOs who seem to have become an alternative civil service that questions Government policy, then demands and gets Government money to mount legal challenges – to the Government! This sub-contracting of policy, I believe, is now reaching alarming levels and, in the rise and hype around Citizens’ Assemblies, we begin to see a whole parallel administration: unelected, unaccountable, and unprecedented in a nation and society with a great and historical commitment to voting on who decides policy. Farmers – and I think very many others – are becoming perturbed and anxious about the levels of power and control that unelected and unaccountable NGOs seem to have assumed for themselves, and which elected individuals and offices of State seem only too happy to hand over.

A year to remember 

Put simply, 2023 has been a disaster for dairy farmers with prices crashing by 23c/L, made worse by awful weather conditions. Incomes have been severely hit due to these things, as well as the failure of input costs to fall in line with milk price. The last two months have seen an unexpected ‘firming up’ on dairy markets, which would instil a level of optimism as we enter 2024. The new year will commence with milk price on an upward trend and at this stage, as global milk supplies appear constrained, we can expect a strong average milk price, in the 40s, next year. But let’s be clear, 40c/L is the new 32c/L in terms of breakeven and 40c/L is no reason to be getting excited. 
On beef, one threat looms large and I’ll say only this, if the Mecosur deal proceeds, then I think the Irish Government and the EU forfeit the right to ever mention sustainability again. Every single morning, we wake up to a working day that will be dominated by the word ‘emissions’ and how we can lower them. Rising emissions are – we never cease to be told – a global problem and the survival of the human race, not to mind our family farms, depends on lowering emissions. Imagine our surprise, then, to be recently told by Peter Kearney who heads up the newly independent State air traffic control and navigation agency, AirNav Ireland, that we can expect air travel to surge by 12 per cent next year. Just in case that was too vague, we had Kenny Jacobs of Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) complaining that the current Dublin Airport passenger ceiling of 32 million was hopelessly inadequate – that it was too low, and it was going to cost Ireland money – and we had better get that up to 40 million, pronto.
You might have thought the Irish Government would have shot that down on grounds of the huge increase in emissions? Not a bit of it. In the Sunday Independent of November 5, the Taoiseach indicated that he supported the lifting of the ceiling on passenger numbers from Dublin Airport. The reason he cited – if you can believe it – is that if we don’t offer those new routes then we’ll lose them to other competing hubs and airports.
The question then becomes, why aren’t emissions a problem for flights overseas for stag parties and hen nights but are a problem when they are connected to food production anywhere in Ireland? Cows are bad! Foreign-destination hens and stags are grand, though. Carry on.
I leave you with that, but I want you all to keep asking this very question. Even as I step down from the presidency of the ICMSA, you can be assured that I’ll go on asking it, as will my successor at the helm of a very great association of farmers who will go on as we always have, to continue looking for solutions and demanding fairness and the proper prices for our work and our product.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your help, and well wishes. I wish you a very happy Christmas and the very best of luck for 2024, and beyond.