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Just 159 days have passed since the resignation of Pat Smith as IFA general secretary, after a series of events that rocked the IFA to its very core.
Richard Kennedy, a dairy and beef farmer from Co Limerick, said throughout the 25 election hustings that the campaign was based on a single issue. That issue was to “rebuild the trust” lost within the IFA, following the pay scandals of November 2015.
Kennedy admitted there is still a way to go to further rebuild the trust between the IFA and its members.
An issue of trust
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal immediately after his election on Tuesday, he said: “The trust has taken a bit of a hammering,” but it is “not entirely” broken.
“Getting back trust, you have to earn it,” Kennedy said, and he pledged to meet and talk to “farmers and farm families” to hear their concerns. Kennedy also said the track record of the IFA is conducive to fighting on behalf of farmers with “banks, co-ops or processors”.
“No matter how people on the other side of the table disliked the IFA, they had to respect the organisation. That’s what I want to get back,” Kennedy said.
Takling serious issues
Kennedy was defeated in the 2009 IFA presidential election. Since then, he has had a low-profile in the IFA. What took him into the race and what can he bring to the role?
“I wanted to be involved in serious issues in the IFA, and I felt the only thing I could do was put the hand up and see where it would take me.
“I was always an IFA man. I’m an IFA man to the core. I’m a proud IFA man and I’m not going to be let it be said that I didn’t do my part.
“I went into this with no baggage and I walked out with no baggage. I fought the campaign, I put out my policies, I said what kind of person I was and I left it to the people to decide,” Kennedy said.
Top of the agenda
The appointment of a successor to Pat Smith is top of the agenda for Kennedy.
“The first thing is to support the president. There are a lot decisions to be made in the IFA. One of the first is a new chief executive. That will be very important,” he added.
Worthy opponents
For every winner there must be a loser. In this case, Kennedy saw off the efforts of Pat Farrell and Nigel Renaghan. Both men were magnanimous in defeat.
Farrell and Renaghan pledged their support to both Joe Healy and Kennedy. Renaghan indicated that he would run again for a senior position with the IFA.
“You’ve seen the first of Nigel Renaghan, and I can guarantee you this: you haven’t seen the last,” Renaghan defiantly said in his speech.
An IFA man to the core
Richard Kennedy: dairy farmer from Co Limerick; former IFA dairy chair; former Limerick chair; former Macra na Feirme president; unsuccessful contestant in the 2009 IFA president election. We can now add IFA deputy president to that list.
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