Kerry IFA chair Kenny Jones may face a motion of no confidence, as divisions within the county deepen.

Last Friday, a cohort of nine officers of the Kerry IFA county executive met. That meeting called for a halt to disciplinary proceedings that are understood to leave the county’s dairy chair, Michael O’Dowd, facing sanction. A deadline of Tuesday evening was set for a response.

It is understood that there was no engagement from either county chair Jones or the chair of the association’s Rules and Privileges committee, Martin Stapleton, by that deadline.

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This leaves the disciplinary process, triggered by a formal complaint made in July, set to move to the next stage on Monday 24 October, when the IFA’s national council will be presented with a report from the man who conducted an external investigation, Gerard Dollard.

Only the national council can approve the disciplinary sanction that is proposed, which is a bar from all officer positions for a period of four years, with a review after two years built in.

The meeting last Friday called for a halt to those proceedings, “to see if a solution can be found within the county [that] will unite the county executive to come behind the county chair”.

At last Friday’s meeting, unhappiness was expressed with many aspects of affairs within Kerry IFA. Four positions are currently unfilled, including that of vice-chair.

John Joe Fitzgerald resigned that position in August, having been another of the three people cited in the investigation.

He now says that he has resigned from the IFA entirely.

Speaking on Wednesday, Michael O’ Dowd said that the refusal of the county chair to engage on this matter would result in a motion of no confidence in him. “I have the support of 11 of the county officers” he said.

Large Kerry IFA membership

Kerry IFA is one of only two counties whose membership is so high that they are awarded a second delegate to the national council, Galway being the other.

Earlier this year, the Kerry executive overwhelmingly passed a motion calling for remuneration increases to president Tim Cullinan, deputy president Brian Rushe and director general Damian McDonald to be reversed.

Some recent Kerry IFA meetings have been affected by the dispute, and the officers who met last Friday, in an unofficial meeting, say there is a huge backlog of important issues, ranging from ACRES to slurry storage to emissions cuts and supports for drystock farmers.