Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon/South Leitrim) – Independent Alliance

The viability of small farmers. Central to that is the restoration of ANC payments to pre-2008 levels. That is one thing that I will be fighting for very hard in the next Dáil. Then there’s the live export issue which has repeatedly not been addressed. It’s unfathomable to think the we have not been able to do more to get live cattle out of the country.

Martin Ferris (Kerry) – Sinn Féin

To make sure that all famers have a fair income, especially farmers on more marginal land types. Dairy farmers are on 23c/litre at the minute and they cannot survive on that. On cattle prices, we have to push through legislation which would look at what the multiples pay the processors and the margins they make. Also a €20/ewe premium is necessary.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary) – Fianna Fáil

We are facing into the worst income crisis in farming I have seen in a long time – in dairy, beef, grain and pigs. The figures for the industry are frightening. I’m not just a TD for farming issues, but I will be raising them very, very loudly in the Dáil. There are discrepancies in (cattle) prices between Ireland and the UK. Retailers forcing down prices is only one element of it. We need another outlet for live cattle.

Michael Darcy (Wexford) - Fine Gael

Farm incomes are on the floor. Prices are the immediate issue, with beef, dairy, and grain below production costs. As a practicing farmer, I am fully aware of how hard it is to control costs. We need action on fertiliser prices. Climate change targets and their potential to impact on farm output will need careful handling by government.

Listen to a discussion of the general election in our podcast:

IFA candidates

Flor McCarthy: This general election has resulted in a very uncertain situation and raises many issues about the composition of the next government and the priorities of that government.

Farming and rural issues, including commodity prices and farm incomes, must be among those priorities with a strong focus at the cabinet table on agriculture and the rural economy. The agriculture minister must be apppointed solely to agriculture.

Joe Healy: “The next minister must have agriculture as his only portfolio; the challenges in farming are too serious to have a minister covering multiple areas. In addition, the next minister will have to put farmer incomes as his/her primary focus.

“It is no good having markets all over the world if farmers are losing money – as they now are in beef, dairying, tillage and pigs – inside their own farm gates. This has to change.”

Henry Burns: We in IFA need to hit the ground running with the new minister and government. As president, I would deliver a focused plan to government, developed through the commodity committees, to address incomes. Government has focused too much on agricultural output and exports. Farmers can’t survive on big announcements around exports and markets.

“Farmers need viable prices above the cost of production and need a fair return for their work”.