This Saturday marks the first anniversary of Michael Creed’s appointment as Minister for Agriculture. The Macroom man was seen as a surprise appointment at the time, coming in from the cold of the backbenches, where he had languished since opposing Enda Kenny in the 2010 leadership heave.
His delight at the announcement was visible, and he has seemed to enjoy the challenge of the role. So how has he fared in his first 12 months in office?
On the whole, pretty well. He is an assured speaker, and affable in public. He hasn’t put a firm stamp of his own on the job yet, but there was the creation of the dairy forum, a sharp focus on live exports, and a successful budget. He has maintained his predecessor Simon Coveney’s rather hectic schedule of foreign trade missions.
The €150m low-interest loan scheme has been successful – so much so that there may be fall-out over all those farmers who were locked out of the scheme. Agriculture has been one of eight departments identified as not having had any legislation passed in the last year, as the minority government has struggled to crack on with a legislative agenda.
On Brexit, he has remained calm and rational, bringing all the experience of almost 30 years in national politics to bear.
There have been some lows as well.
Tillage farmers feel he has dragged his heels on the crisis fund, an issue in his own county. It was a political misstep that allowed Fianna Fáil to defeat the Government on a Dáil vote on the subject. Delayed GLAS payments have hardly been a success either.
Political future
His immediate political future could well be determined by the upcoming Fine Gael leadership contest. As a fellow county man of one of the candidates (Creed and Coveney are both from Cork), he has to be careful as to what he says. He is now a senior figure in the party, and could be promoted further, staying in Agriculture House, or even back in the back benches in a few weeks’ time.
SHARING OPTIONS