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The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) presidential election takes place this Wednesday 14 December in Portlaoise.
Presentations from each candidate and voting by the association's national executive will take place in the Midlands Park Hotel from 7pm. A result is expected at 9pm.
Current sheep chair and Westmeath farmer Seán McNamara will go head-to-head with the association’s current president and Cork farmer Dermot Kelleher, who is vying to win a second term in office.
Both candidates have outlined what they would do for beef and sheep farmers, if elected.
Seán McNamara is the ICSA’s current sheep chair and is a sheep, suckler and beef farmer.
He farms at Lismacaffrey, Co Westmeath, and is married to Eleanor and has four adult children, three of whom are active in the farming business.
In advance of Wednesday’s ICSA presidential election, McNamara said that if elected he will be “focused on a fair price for livestock producers and fair play for all farmers when it comes to on-farm inspections”.
The Westmeath man suggested that farmers in the drystock sector are being “shafted week in, week out”.
“I want to see all farmers getting a fair share of the final retail price and an end to the expectation that farmers can somehow produce food at below the cost of production.
"This problem has got worse with the escalation of input costs and we cannot expect farmers to continue to produce.
“For years, the ICSA lobbied hard for an agri-food regulator and 2023 will see this office finally up and running.
"We need answers as to who is making what along the food chain and expose excess profiteering on behalf of the processors and the retailers,” he said.
Inspections
Seán McNamara said that, if elected, he would seek “more fairness for farmers in relation to on-farm inspections”.
“As a general rule, farmers should be given notice of farm visits and schemes should be farmer friendly and not tied up in red tape.
“If the Government is serious about climate change, there must be adequate funding to assist farmers to improve. There is no other sector expected to achieve miracles without substantial funding and farming is no different,” he said.
The ICSA presidential candidate said he would also work to “increase participation by younger farmers and female farmers in our organisation”.
Dermot Kelleher is the current president of the ICSA and has undertaken the role for the last two years. Prior to this, he was ICSA national suckler chair and Munster vice-president of the association.
He runs a suckler farm, including pedigree Charolais cattle, with his wife Mary in Inchigeela in west Cork. The couple have five adult children, two of whom are farming.
On what he’d do if re-elected as ICSA president, Kelleher said he wants to “put food security back at the top of the agenda both here and in Brussels”.
“The environment and climate change are important, but we must not allow the importance of food production to be undermined by short-sighted policies.
“I want to see a forum for farmers doing the work on the ground to talk directly to those designing schemes about the practicalities of doing the tasks without being shouted down and outnumbered by NGOs - some whom have a vendetta against agriculture and farmers such as An Taisce and many other vegan and animal rights crowds under the guise of environmental and climate change.”
‘Big dairy’
The incumbent candidate warned that the drystock sector must be “protected and not sacrificed for the big dairy lobby”.
“Suckler, beef, sheep and tillage farmers are not in derogation. Many of our members are fairly extensive and many on land that is not fit for any other type of farming. Without farmers, all that land will go rank, with no biodiversity.
“I believe we need to work together to fight the anti-livestock farming agenda, which is well funded and is making the climate change debate all about livestock farming and diverting attention from the responsibilities of the fossil fuel and energy sectors,” he said.
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