The IFA’s national council is meeting this Monday with members, to discuss a number of key governance reforms to the association.

One of the main changes to be debated is the co-opting of members onto the national officers committee (NOC), which is currently comprised of the president, deputy president, treasurer, four regional chairs and the director general.

Under the proposal, it understood that up to three people could be co-opted onto the committee. It is suggested that those co-opted members would be people with a background in the IFA or farming, and would bring a new skillset to the committee.

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The move to appoint external members would be a significant departure from the current system.

Voting process

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the voting process for elections in the organisation is to be debated.

Members will debate whether voting in future IFA elections will be at branch meetings, as is currently the case, by postal vote or a hybrid of both.

Furthermore, the terms of the president, deputy president and regional chairs are to be debated and whether they go back to being one four-year term.

Currently, the terms for these positions are two years long, with each elected representative required to be ratified to continue for two more years.

Terms

National council is also expected to discuss the terms served by members on committees or in positions such as that of the county chair. This measure is aimed at getting new blood into the organisation.

In this case, if two IFA members go head-to-head for a position and one candidate has not held any positions previously, while the other has served at some stage on a committee or in a county role, then the person who previously held a position wouldn’t be able to stand for election.

These are some of the main reform issues that are being discussed at the council this Monday, and it is understood that reform of the IFA is the only topic on the agenda for the meeting.