The main message coming from the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) crisis tillage meeting on Friday night is that the Minister cannot guarantee the sector the financial assistance members of the public voted on in last November’s election, but it was also very clear that farmers will not be happy if he does not fulfil those plans.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said 7 October will be his first budget as Minister. This was outlined by speakers as his first chance to honour commitments made in election manifestos.
Additional funding for tillage of €60m per year for five years was outlined in Fine Gael's and Fianna Fáil’s election manifestoes as additional support for tillage last autumn.
Funding
Despite both parties having the same plans for tillage funding, the Minister said: “It would be madness of me to make a commitment in this room tonight when I’m in the middle of negotiations that are difficult. Trust me on that one.”
Later, he said: “People talk about manifestoes. What drives Government policy is we spent six weeks negotiating it after the election, where parties who have the most votes come together with the respect of manifestoes.”
IFA president Francie Gorman reacted strongly to this. “To be fair Minister, what gets Government selected are promises in an election,” he declared.
Gorman noted that farmers will not be accepting anything less than what was promised.
Over 700 farmers attended the meeting. Read more here.
Read more from the Minister here.
SHARING OPTIONS