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One year on from being elected to the position of president of the IFA, Joe Healy has said that the past year has been busy and challenging but great.
The Co Galway dairy and livestock farmer was elected on this day last year in the Castleknock Hotel, Dublin, after topping the polls with over 14,000 votes.
He was one of three candidates in the running for the top job; Kerry’s Flor McCarthy and Laois’ Henry Burns were also in the mix to become the 15th president of the IFA.
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Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, he said that one of the things that no one had factored in this time last year was the Brexit vote.
“Brexit is one part of what we do. Other campaigns are ongoing at the moment, the CAP campaign, the ANC campaign, trade deals, the food supply chain and that’s aside from inputs and prices across all the different commodity sectors.
“There’s a lot of good work going on. I’m very happy with the way the IFA is at the moment.”
Background
An election was called after a pay scandal in November 2015 rocked the association which saw the former general secretary Pat Smith and former president Eddie Downey depart the organisation and thrust the inner workings at IFA HQ into the national spotlight.
A clearout of the IFA’s top table was also called for by a number of county executives after further details of pay packages came to light. This saw elections for not only a new IFA president, but a new deputy president and regional chairmen also.
A lengthy hustings process saw the candidates and deputy president candidates visit the 26 counties before branches in each county voted for a new top table in IFA.
At the count on 19 April, Healy emerged the victor. Co Limerick’s Richard Kennedy was elected as deputy president.
For a full interview with Joe Healy, see next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.
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