We should note Paud Evans’ retirement from the Department of Agriculture last week. Evans, a principal officer with the Department, spent over 40 years in the civil service. During that time, he had a significant impact on how milk quotas were implemented and, more recently, advised on consecutive CAP reforms, negotiating many of the most complex decisions.

His ability was not just to read European Commission legal texts and proposals like story books but immediately and with utter clarity see the implications they would have for farmers across Ireland, and particularly in the more marginal areas. This resulted in policies geared to cause the least inconvenience to Irish farmers while at the same time respecting in full the complex rules laid down in Brussels. Undoubtedly he is one of the key reasons why Ireland has led Europe in delivering payments to farmers. More recently he tenaciously defended the EU land eligibility fine, reducing it dramatically.

He was acutely conscious that his was not a political role but one of facilitation and working with all elements of the industry to this affect. He has been a good friend to Irish farmers and the Irish Farmers Journal. We wish him and his family a long and healthy retirement and hope that his knowledge, expertise and way of doing business will not be lost to the sector.

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