Cavan comes out in force for IFA debate

Thursday night was freezing, literally freezing. You would have needed good reason to defrost the windscreen and brave the cold.

For scores and scores of IFA members they found that reason in the call to back Maurice Brady in his campaign to succeed Frank Brady as the new regional chair. The size of the crowd packed into one of the Hotel Kilmore’s function rooms was a fair barometer of the support Maurice attracts.

Kevin Sweeney, the only other candidate running, received a warm reception from the partisans. His easy going, straight talking manner was appreciated, and had the Louth man faced a non-Breffni contender, he could have amassed quite a few votes at the close of business.

However to adopt American parlance, Cavan is no swing state. From the outset, Kevin as good as conceded this night belonged Maurice.

“I’m not going to do my full speech tonight in a mark of respect to the county we’re in,” said Kevin, as he kept his opening remarks to a brief sketch of his agri background - he milks 100 cows at his Ardee farm and also runs a poultry business.

“We do bronze turkeys, so hopefully they’ll be okay for the next two weeks. After that I don’t really mind,” he quipped.

A change in IFA voting rules meant that postal votes are no longer an option. So for branches to use their democratic voice, their delegates have to attend debates in person. Those delegates’ votes are then given weight according to branch membership. As such, the turn out in Cavan was the be all and end all.

Maurice’s address began by apologising for not having been able to contact all the Cavan delegates in person, due to his “heavy schedule of canvassing” in the swing counties.

As such he left the Cavan charm offensive to his election team. “I think by the turn out tonight they’ve done an okay , so-so kind of a job,” he playfully jibed.

Heartened to see the support, Maurice acknowledged his wife Clare, and family members, and became audibly emotional as he welcomed his parents.

He then rattled through his key campaign issues: protection of CAP payments; a properly funded succession scheme; certainty on derogation; and simplification of schemes.

“I can’t be in Cavan without mentioning TB - it’s a scourge. This year we’re heading for 50,000 reactors and six per cent of herds locked up. The whole thing just seems to be going around in circles.

“It boils down to proper wildlife management, and would you believe that spending on wildlife control is down 18% year on year? It’s hard to believe.”

The general vibe of going through the motions persisted as the event was opened up to questions from the floor. And yet, amongst the predictable bug-bears, some more surprising issues were aired.

One man claimed that supplements for feeds to inhibit cattle from producing methane was having harmful effects on animals. He asked the candidates what they were going to do to stop the methane inhibitors from being added to animal feeds.

Admitting he didn’t know “an awful lot” about them, Kevin proceeded to say he didn’t agree with it because people won’t want to buy products from cows fed by the inhibitors. Therefore he suggested, “If we are going to do anything, we need to get the public to back the farmer on this one to say they don’t want it in their milk or their beef.”

Maurice explained the inhibitors were being used on a trial basis, and didn’t think it was “being forced on anyone yet”.

“The issue first is do they work? And are they of any value? And what cost?

“I’m told, even if they do work, they could cost €80-100 per cow over one season,” he said surmising cost would prevent it from taking off.

He believed they were more suited to an indoor system, and “not really much addition to our system where the cows are out in grass”.

Protest

Another member form the floor recalled the successful ‘Enough’s enough’ protest in Dublin two years ago, where he recalled, “In actually a couple of days men got their ACREs payment.”

In relation to Mercosur and Nitrates Derogation he said, “If we don’t put down our foot we are going to be walked over and if we want to bring youth into agriculture we can’t let that happen.”

Both candidates were content the IFA are “leading the way” on both issues.

Maurice observed: “The average loss to a derogation farmer if it was gone in the morning would be minus 27 cows; an average loss of income of €43,000, and over €1bn of exports.”

“The problem of the derogation is ,if it comes in with terms and conditions that make it unworkable, then what good is it?”

Kevin said he was one of those farmers in derogation.

“We’re been told I need more storage by 2027/28. If I make that decision today, I’m going to borrow more money, and not know whether I’ll have the animals to pay for it. We all know this,” he said.

Referring to Mercosur, he conceded, “it is going to happen, where we lie in it now, I think the fight is that we cannot let beef in that’s not up to the same standard. Then they say it’s only five per cent of the beef that’s produced that’s very, very good - are they going to change for the European market - for 90,000t? Probably not.

“It looks like there’s a day in Dublin, that’s what I would say. A proper day for every farmer to come out.”

The reported €200K-plus wage of the director of the IFA was also raised, where the questioner described it as an “extraordinary, almost obscene wage”.

Kevin responded: “I know there’s pressure in places, I do, I owe the money myself, we pay the bills, try our best; but in fairness, if we don’t pay those wages, we’re not going to have the staff we have, you’re not going to have that kind of clientele working for you.”

Maurice echoed this view noting we are in a “high wage economy”.

“Are you going to get anybody of a similar calibre for less money? I’m not so sure.”

Responding to a question about the impact of planning regulations on Cavan farmers or their children seeking to build homes in their own lands, Maurice voiced his hopes that streamlining the planning system underway in the Dáil might improve matters.

He gave out about “serial objectors” and claimed he knew farmers in Cavan whose applications were “objected to by somebody, maybe in Cork”.

Maurice said that the council may have approved the application, but meeting the demands of the appeal could cost the applicant thousands, dismissing the current system as “a cod”.

“I do want every family member to be fit to build a home beside their parents,” said the father of five. He noted that farmers should be allowed to give sites to each child, but often are only allowed to let one person build.

“And then they have to go to a town and pay €400K for a house no one can afford. It’s very unfair.”

Other topics included revitalising the IFA branches, farmers being blamed disproportionately for damage to the environment, succession.

Giving their final pitches, the cordial vibe continued among the candidates as each vowed to represent for the membership to the best of their ability.

“We’re not here to fight with each other, we’re here to fight for you,” said Kevin.

The election count will be held on Tuesday, December 2, in the Irish Farm Centre and the next Regional Chair will take up office at the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the IFA.