Farmer anger over the current CAP proposals should be directed at both the IFA leadership and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, according to a former senior member of the association.

Former IFA livestock chair and presidential candidate Angus Woods slammed the association’s approach to the CAP negotiations, which in his view, was characterised by fear of internal dissension and fear of failure.

Woods claimed the IFA’s CAP lobbying campaign “had failed farmers” due to a combination of poor leadership and an inept strategy.

He contended that the IFA failed to set out the association’s position on CAP reform in a comprehensive manner at an early stage in the debate.

“The association produced a five-point wishy-washy plan three or four months ago, but up until then we had nothing.

I was deeply unhappy with the leadership’s performance, or lack of performance, over the last two years

“The approach seemed to be to wait for the Department [of Agriculture] to produce its plan, and then to kick the hell out of it,” he added.

Woods has not renewed his IFA membership this year.

“I made a conscious decision not to do so. I was deeply unhappy with the leadership’s performance, or lack of performance, over the last two years. I feel that IFA’s leadership has not represented hard-working farmers,” he said.

Woods was highly critical of the IFA’s efforts on CAP reform.

“Essentially, you’d imagine that CAP reform only happened over the last three months but it has been coming down the tracks for years. Coming out complaining about things after they have been announced is not representing farmers,” he said.

“Instead of getting under the bonnet and seeking to influence these [CAP] decisions, IFA was busy staging phoney wars with Bord Bia over the PGI and with the supermarkets,” Woods maintained.

Primary challenges

He said the IFA should have identified the primary challenges facing farmers from CAP reform, formulated its policy position – despite its internal differences – and then gone after its key objectives.

IFA was set up to look to the future, failing to produce position papers on CAP is not what I call looking to the future

“In relation to CAP, IFA just didn’t sit on the fence, the leadership hid down behind it. IFA was set up to look to the future, failing to produce position papers on CAP is not what I call looking to the future,” he said.

Woods also questioned how the IFA engaged with the CAP negotiations in Brussels. For example, he maintained the lobbying of MEPs only happened after key votes had taken place.

Structure

The Wicklow farmer asserted that changes to the IFA’s structure had, in his opinion, contributed to its “poor performance on CAP”.

He alleged that the concentration of power in the IFA’s national officers’ committee – which comprises the president, vice-president, treasurer and regional chairs – had “marginalised” the traditional commodity committee structure within the association.

The buck stops at the top

The current national officers’ committee includes Tim Cullinan, Brian Rushe and Martin Stapleton, as well as Pat Murphy, Nigel Renaghan, Francie Gorman and Harold Kingston.

“The buck stops at the top [on CAP]. The national officers’ committee and the director general [Damian McDonald] are ultimately responsible,” Woods said.

Woods rejected suggestions that his views of the current IFA leadership have been coloured by his defeat in the association’s presidential election.