Noel O’Toole Dairy farmer, Co Galway

I was lucky to be involved and host a grass measurement course run by Teagasc on my farm for a number of years. At the start, I balked at the €1,400 annual fee, but I was persuaded at the time by Teagasc that I would get a fourfold return on the money.

The fact of the matter is that I got a much better return than that fourfold return promised at the outset. I believe Teagasc should focus on technical agriculture because that is what it can back up with research. With research stations, they can more or less sing any song depending on soil type or whatever production system is necessary.

Independent planners or consultants can do the paperwork for schemes. We get our paperwork completed by a private planner and that is his focus and yes of course he gets paid for it. At the moment, my local Teagasc man is strangled and we are not getting the potential out of him that would be possible if he was able to get out of the office.

The membership fee is somewhere around €400 but you might only get one visit per year. I think farmers would pay more if they could get a good, defined service. I know Teagasc will argue that it wants the paperwork, but the danger I see from riding two horses, as it is at the moment, is that it could end up riding no horse at all.

David Hannon Dairy farmer, Co Meath

There is a danger that some of the small changes Teagasc is making now in terms of hiring a few new advisers is too little too late.

In many ways, the expansion train has left the station and there is expansion going to be made without an advisory service that’s up to scratch. There are a lot of changes in an expanding dairy enterprise that need serious time and consideration. If you are doubling cow numbers, what parlour suits, what labour is required and what profit will fall out of the new business? Personally, I think there is a need for: (1) a day-to-day problem service and (2) a hi-tech, highly qualified dairy expansion service that could steer a client around problems into solutions.

There are big questions on dairy expansion that need answers. There is no point in having the best research if nobody knows about it. We only have to look to the UK to see where advice and research is no longer independent but has been soaked up by a commercial world with vested interests. I’m not set on the idea of Teagasc contracting out the work, but I think there can be people with clearly defined roles within the one organisation looking after a client. Keeping it in the same organisation would make it more streamlined or at least the farm adviser could oversee what is going on in the other side of the house on schemes and form filling, etc.

Richard Starrett Dairy farmer, Co Donegal

Our situation with Teagasc is a very hot topic at the moment because our long-standing dairy adviser is stepping down after delivering an excellent service.

At the moment, we are being told an adviser is going to come up from the west to run discussion groups and we have a phone service from another adviser in Sligo. Both probably have enough to do without hearing from dairy farmers in Donegal.

Our adviser who is retiring has been doing schemes and paperwork all spring, so March discussion group walks were postponed at a very critical time of year in terms of decision-making.

I’m easy about whether Teagasc delegates or contracts out the paperwork side of things, but each employee needs to a have clear focus – focus on technical delivery of information at the right time of the year or focus on paperwork and getting the scheme work in order.

Pat Murray Suckler and sheep farmer, Co Wexford

Locally, Teagasc is doing a great job. The advisers are good, the work that they are carrying out on behalf of farmers is the best they can do. For me, the bigger problem is at a national level. The whole pensions thing is a disaster and is a millstone around the neck of Teagasc. It’s dragging them down and affecting the work of the good people on the ground.

I think it’s easy to say that Teagasc needs to do more but the problem is deeper than that. There’s a huge amount of money going into Teagasc from the Department of Agriculture every year, but where is that money going?

If the Department was able to restructure Teagasc, maybe downsize it, then the organisation could focus its attention on delivering proper research and getting it out to the masses. At that point, good research would come out and there would be more money with the Department to deliver into farmers’ pockets for vital schemes each year.

The planner side of the business is a problem. You look at Dublin Bus, where privatisation is becoming more prevalent. Maybe it’s time to fully privatise planners – take that away from Teagasc and focus on delivering good research.

Eddie Downey Suckler, tillage and poultry farmer, based in Co Meath, IFA president and former Teagasc board member

There is one thing that could correct many of the problems in Teagasc and that’s the ending of the State employment embargo.

Teagasc cannot go out and get good staff to replace those who are retiring. Good people are going most years and we have this wealth of highly qualified and ambitious recent graduates sitting there looking for jobs when there should be good jobs for them in Teagasc.

The employment embargo is outdated and has to end. When I sat on the board of Teagasc for four years, all we wanted to do was get new blood into the system but we couldn’t. We cannot let Teagasc fall off a cliff because its hands are tied by old rules. International farmers look to our research in Ireland and see it as not only being excellent, but also as independent. We cannot let that go.

On the research side of things, dairying is flying. Teagasc is going from strength to strength there. On the beef side, we have maternal and terminal herds in Grange that are doing well but what I think we need to see is that research made available in a fit-for-purpose way for all beef and suckler farmers.

Flor McCarthy Suckler farmer, Co Kerry

Youth is the key to making Teagasc relevant once again. We have young farmers coming into the system and coming into a challenging environment. Farming for young people is a lot different to how it was when I was starting off and we need young advisers who can relate to the young people who are starting off farming.

Teagasc also needs to become a body that supports all farmers in every region of the country. It has clearly moved towards favouring dairy farming because it is more profitable and there are less resources. Drystock farmers need advice every bit as much as dairy farmers, so we cannot allow Teagasc to pick and choose who the advice goes to.

We have also seen in my own region of south Kerry a real lack of advisers emerge. There are advisers everywhere in north Kerry, but down around us where there are more farmers living a good distance away from each other, you nearly can’t get an adviser. The ones that are there are excellent, but we don’t have enough of them.