A total of seven staff in the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) have availed of an early retirement scheme offered by the organisation and will leave in the coming months.
The scheme will cost €1.134m. However, the Irish Farmers Journal understands that the annual saving is in the region of €500,000.
Among those availing of the scheme are director of livestock Kevin Kinsella, dairy executive Catherine Lascurettes, renewables project group secretary Fintan Conway, and IFA regional executives Seán Clarke (Cork), and Anthony Clinton (Meath, Louth, Dublin and Cavan).
Also departing are Mary Jenner and Ann Rose, well-known administration staff in the organisation.
IFA president Tim Cullinan updated the association’s national council on the uptake of the scheme on a video call last week.
Cullinan paid tribute to those departing, saying top-class committed staff working with elected farmer officers was central to the IFA’s success.
A €10 increase in membership fees sanctioned last year will deliver approximately €700,000 in revenue
Outstanding service
IFA director general Damian McDonald said that the departing staff had given outstanding service and between them had 186 years of experience with the IFA.
The retirement scheme comes as the IFA continues efforts to address a deficit in its budget.
It reported an operating loss of €246,965 for the 12 months to the end of March 2019. This was an improvement on the operating loss of €1.5m reported for the previous year (March 2018).
However, it is understood provisional figures for its latest set of accounts indicate the operating loss has worsened and is now closer to that of March 2018.
Council members heard that a €10 increase in membership fees sanctioned last year will deliver approximately €700,000 in revenue.
The IFA also unveiled plans to recruit someone to fulfil the role of chief economist and director of policy.
Meanwhile, the Irish Farmers Journal understands that the IFA’s rural development executive Gerry Gunning is approaching retirement age.
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