Voluntary redundancies at IFA headquarters in the Irish Farm Centre are “not on the cards”, IFA president Tim Cullinan said, when pressed by the Irish Farmers Journal on the issue.

Such redundancies had been mooted before Christmas and again in recent weeks.

“I want to get back out to the grassroots farmers. I’ve committed already to going back to having regional meetings. I will personally be involved in eight regional meetings over the next year.

“If there’s one thing that needs to change, we need to get back out there, listen to the grassroots members, listen to what they have to say and I think that’s critical for the association.

“I want to work closely with the chairs of each committee within the association to ensure that if there are any concerns that those concerns come directly up to me as president,” he said.

Funding

Referring to the IFA’s levy-based funding model, Cullinan said that the current system had been there for a long number of years and he believed that the levy can be maintained.

One of Cullinan’s campaign promises was that he would split the IFA’s livestock committee in two to form a suckler committee and a finisher committee.

When asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if this was still deliverable, he said it would be looked at in the near future.

“I’ll be sitting down with the board of the association over the coming weeks and see where that is going to go.”