A time of uncertainty
Alice Doyle has been farming for more than 30 years with her husband, Tom, on their beef and tillage farm in Wexford. She is a stalwart of Irish farming. Before her historic election to the vice-presidency of the IFA in December 2023 – the first woman to hold this office – she served as national chair of the IFA’s Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee for two years. She has organised information evenings and farm safety demos, has made submissions to Oireachtas committees, has liaised and engaged with members on topics such as Fair Deal, pension issues, rural housing, health and wellbeing, and has held leadership roles in Macra. Professionally, she was a school principal, having been appointed at just 22.
Safe to say, Alice was the right person to take on the role of IFA vice president and as she enters her ninth month in the job, she sums up the mood among farmers:
“I speak to farmers from all different sectors every day. The mood is better than might be expected under the circumstances, knowing how things are in farming. Some sectors are doing reasonably okay considering the bad year we've had, and others are under severe pressure. I would divide IFA’s work into the overarching issues we pursue and then the individual problems people face, where we can be of assistance on a one-to-one basis. Both are equally important,” she says. But there are some major concerns, she says, and chief among them are lack of income and uncertainty. “In the past, when we had difficulties, we always knew that if you worked hard, you'd work your way through it. That's not necessarily the way at the minute. Farmers are working day and night complying with all the regulation, and yet, with the uncertainty out there, they, and we, don't know what's ahead. I think it’s affecting younger people entering into farming, and the older people too, who want to transfer their farms.”
Generational transfer
It is expected that the European Commission will publish its proposals for the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in mid-2025. With this in mind, Minister McConalogue recently announced his intention to establish a Commission on Generational Renewal in Farming. Launching it, he said the time had come to have an ‘honest and absolutely objective look at this, including the supports in place, to consider whether those measures are having the desired effect, how supports might best be configured to encourage generational renewal, for example through land transfers and succession planning’. Alice welcomes the establishment of a commission because there is a need for a spotlight on generational renewal, but she hopes this will not be a talking shop: “We all know what the problems are; it is solutions we need now. Actively engaging with farmers will be important to figure out how we're going to deal with this. It's not going to be simple because of those big challenges of income and uncertainty.”
Environmental commitment
The climate crisis is another significant challenge that farmers have been dealing with and they have shown ‘huge commitment to environmental protection’ says Alice. “We've made huge changes and adaptations, even though we've never been given proper credit for it, only condemnation from some quarters. But the funding to support that was taken out of the CAP. Therefore, it's going to go up to Europe and our own government to make sure that through co-funding, the money will be there to support food production as well as environmental ambitions. We want to get a fair share of the €3bn climate fund that is being put in place and let the CAP provide for the production of food.”
Alice shares her thoughts on below-cost production
“Income is going to be very much based on supports. I would love to think we could produce food, be paid for it and make an income from the market. But we know that's not possible because of a cheap food policy. The consumer wants cheap food and the government will insist that we produce food at prices that don’t reflect input and regulatory costs. In the past CAP would have made up the difference. It was brought in to assist the farmer in producing food cheaply and abundantly for the consumer. Under the last CAP, particularly, those supports were taken away and have moved to the environment. Farmers have to provide food at below the cost of production. Convergence has further damaged the viable production model for many farmers.”
ACRES controversy
Commenting on the controversy surrounding the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), referred to by the IFA recently as a ‘farce’, Alice says: “When ACRES came out first, a lot of farmers bought into it, with up to 55,000 applications. Farmers compared it to the old GLAS and REPS schemes. But ACRES has thrown up a huge number of problems. Many people in it are extremely unhappy due to delayed payments. Money has been paid out by the farmer to do the work, but they haven't been refunded for that yet. It has left a lot of farmers with a cashflow shortfall.
“Back in February and March, the IFA decided that farm cashflow was so serious that we argued very strongly to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) that a flat payment had to be made to to give farmers money upfront until it sorted out all the issues around ACRES. And we were very proud of the fact that we got money for that. There was €4,000 given to those who were in level one and €5,000 to those in the co-operation section. That got a lot of people out of a financial hole. It was made clear from the beginning that if you were overpaid on that flat payment, money would have to be returned. The problem now is that people are getting demand notices to pay back some of that money, while they're still owed money by the department. So, farmers have to pay back on time, but the department doesn't have to pay us on time. I'm hoping that's all going to change dramatically with the signing of the new Farmers Charter. Under the charter, the DAFM must make payments on time and farmers must comply with their agreements.”
Budget
Outlining the big-ticket budget issues for the IFA, Alice says that the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) has become a major issue. “Some farmers had been asked to pay a tax on zoned land that they're farming, with no possibility of it being used for building purposes,” Alice explains. At the time of print, a deferral of the RZLT for farmers had been proposed to allow time to develop a definition of 'actively farmed' land, and ensure that farmers are not being disadvantaged.
“The biggest issue we'll be dealing with from a sectoral viewpoint is around the whole area of tillage. A tillage survival package is what we're looking for, because we know that last year and this year have been two horrendous years for tillage farmers, where they were late getting in crops, lost a huge number of crops last year, were late getting crops in again this year, and yields will be well down. The tillage sector is on its knees. We’ve spoken to the minister on numerous occasions about this. He has agreed €100 per hectare, but we want that brought up to €250 and guaranteed for five years. A once-off payment doesn't work because of the commitments that producers have to make for an extended period.”
Alice explained that the IFA’s budget submission recognises the need for extended supports for cattle and sheep enterprises.
“We have also prioritised taxation in relation to inheritance and transfer of farms. Agricultural relief is available for farmers but we're lobbying for the tax threshold for asset transfers to be raised to a minimum of €500,000 from parents to children. That would return the threshold to where it was 15 years ago, before price inflation lifted all property values. The need to retain the concessions for agricultural and stock relief is also important. The cost of farm employment is huge and we are advocating for reductions in PRSI payments where farms have employees. The animal health issues around TB will require additional departmental funding if we are to reverse the increase in the disease.”
Derogation retention
“It's going to be difficult to retain derogation. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. There's a different approach this time than there was a couple of years ago when the figure was reduced to 220kg/N/ha. We have huge engagement between all the farm organisations, Meat Industry Ireland, Dairy Industry Ireland, Teagasc and the co-ops. They're all doing everything possible to make our case as favourable as possible for the continuation of the derogation. The taoiseach and Minister McConalogue and Government are committed to supporting the retention case. A big uncertainty is that we have a general election coming up and we don't know who is going to be in Government in 2026.
“We will probably have a new agriculture minister. We could have a new taoiseach. We're going to be dealing with a new Government of whatever construction. Then we have a Commission being formed and we don't know who we're dealing with there yet. We don't know if it will be sympathetic towards agriculture and food security or entirely focused on the green agenda. There is a lot of uncertainty ahead.”