The Big Dealer: Ploughing 2018 stands, your tax money at work

Now that stands at the National Ploughing Championships have been built, used and dismantled – some of them with help from storm Ali – I asked Government agencies active in the agri-food sector how much some of these shiny marquees cost the taxpayer.

The contract for Enterprise Ireland’s €137,761 two-storey structure was awarded to suppliers Eventus and Oblique. The stand hosted the 55 businesses taking part in the Innovation Arena in association with the Irish Farmers Journal and the National Ploughing Association.

The Department of Rural and Community Development joined forces with Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht colleagues to purchase a €122,846 Ploughing stand.

The Department of Agriculture’s marquee came in at €98,370, complete with a connected office to deal with farmers’ queries. Next is the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment with a €92,128 stand. All these departments chose contractor 53 Degrees.

Bord Bia paid €82,024 for the construction and fit-out of its Ploughing stand. Exhibit Design was the contractor here.

Teagasc emerged as one of the State’s thriftier agri-food agencies with a €78,000 budget for all of its Ploughing stand costs including the site, marquee, internal fit, hire of digital equipment, publications, photography, catering and electricity.

The Health and Safety Authority’s stand, contracted to Davis Events, cost €51,505. It included space for demonstrations of safe machinery work.

Local enterprise offices

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government selected Coolsara to erect its tent at a cost of €46,193 – including space for Met Éireann.

Acting on behalf of all local enterprise offices in the country, Carlow County Council paid €47,388 to Jack Restan Displays for a stand hosting the local enterprise village.

Public tenders for Ploughing stands typically include their removal before the site is returned to agricultural use, but not VAT, nor the rates of €156 to €213 per metre of frontage paid to the National Ploughing Association.

I didn’t ask State agencies less directly connected with agriculture, such as the Central Bank or the EPA, nor those in Northern Ireland, but I estimate the taxpayer’s contribution to the Ploughing construction industry to be over €1m.

When storm Ali shut down the Ploughing last Wednesday, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed’s planned marathon visit fell apart.

“My 12-hour schedule involving 30-odd engagements was blown away and was turned into a four-hour stint in a field with similarly stranded ploughing pilgrims,” he was at pains to point out on his Facebook page.

Understandably, he had other obligations on Thursday, including Dáil business – can’t escape that.

What about the additional Friday opening, when An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave up on a weekend of waltzing and pastries in Austria after the EU summit and dashed back to catch up on his own missed Wednesday visit to the Ploughing?

Minister Creed was in Macroom doing constituency work, attending the weekend-long local food festival and chatting to local radio.

Anna May must have been less than impressed.

I see that the IFA has appointed a new communications manager – Ethel Horan (pictured).

I’m told she is from a farming background in Co Offaly and has previously worked in communications at Eirgrid and more recently with PricewaterhouseCoopers as internal communications manager for two years.

I hear she is to take up the role on 8 October, right in time for the budget.

I see bark mulch from the Ploughing site advertised for sale between €120 and €230 per 20ft silage trailer load, depending on quality, with one load claimed to replace 30 4x4 straw bales for bedding.

While most of last year’s soggy Ploughing mulch had to be dumped, this year’s dry weather means contractors have plenty available.

I got lost trying to follow the interview with Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave on Monday’s Morning Ireland about his participation in the take back the city housing protests.

Referring to the IFA grain committee’s occupation of the Department of Agriculture’s lobby in July of last year, Cosgrave noted that “they were left peacefully there to protest for seven days”.

Peaceful protest

I would have thought it was a good thing if you’re in favour of the right to protest peacefully. Then Cosgrave’s ramblings turned increasingly agricultural – occasionally interrupted by Audrey Carville unsuccessfully asking him seven times if he had raised housing issues when he met the Taoiseach.

The man who “grew up on a farm” mentioned the farmer who opposed a CPO for industrial development, the farmers who have been occupying farms “all over the country for years” in protest against forced sales.

“When farmers in this country occupy properties – illegally, by the way – nobody does anything,” Cosgrave said.

It became very unclear to me whether he was trying to rally support for take back the city activists, or regretting that farmers’ protests were not “stormed by heavy police officers dressed in riot gear”.

What seemed very clear from him repeatedly blaming the whole thing on Fine Gael (whatever it was) was his angling for a seat in one of the myriad elections we have coming up.

Congratulations to Ian Wilson, the producer of Countrywide, who was inducted into the IMRO Hall of Fame for his contribution to music broadcasting.

Ian’s wife Aine Lawlor (of Big Week on the Farm and much more) has previously received the same distinction.

Paddy Browne, formerly of Teagasc, is the new chair of the Irish Agricultural Supply Industry Standards (IASIS). IASIS provides accredited training for distributors of plant protection, animal health and pest control sectors. He succeeds Dr Mark Lynch, who sadly passed away in June.

Meanwhile, Ornua has appointed Iarlaith Smyth as president of Ornua Foods North and Latin America. Americans might struggle with pronouncing his name at first.

I note soil scientist Dr John Ryan is to be honoured with the presidential award from the American Society of Agronomy in November.

Hailing from Carrigataha, Cahir, Co Tipperary, earlier this year he received the Justus von Liebig Award – the unofficial Nobel Prize of soil science.

He has held professorial positions at the University of Arizona, the American University of Beirut and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas in Syria.

I see FBD has announced a new sponsorship deal with the Olympic Federation of Ireland.

With less than two years to go until the Tokyo Olympics, The Dealer will be looking for two premium tickets in 2020 for sure.

This year, the insurer sponsored the National Livestock Show at Tullamore, the Young Farmer of the Year awards with Macra and Bloom, to name a few.

Is there anything FBD doesn’t sponsor anymore? I wonder what they will sponsor next.