What’s the plan?

It speaks to the certainty that the absence of a plan almost guarantees failure in whatever endeavour in which we are engaged. The idea that we can do things successfully ‘on the fly’ or ‘off the cuff’ is a myth and the lingering belief that it is possible is actually more destructive than real incompetence. 

Well, I believe we’ve been making up our current agri and farm policy ‘as we go along’ and it’s been an unmitigated disaster. I am not accusing Charlie McConalogue of being incompetent; he’s not and we believe he always acts in good faith. Minister McConalogue’s problem is not his commitment or his intentions; his problem is precisely that lack of a plan to which we refer. Where are we now; and where are we going? No-one has answered that. Actually, in ICMSA’s opinion, no-one has even asked the question! 

It’s now eight months since I had the honour of being elected President of the Association. At that stage, I thought I understood the sense of ‘drift’ and aimlessness that was crippling our one flagship sector. I regret to tell you that it is only now that I have come to appreciate the full degree of confusion and lack of destination that permeates our sector at every level. 

I repeat: where are we now and where are we going? Does anyone in the Department know? If they do, can they share it with the rest of us? And, if there is a plan, who contributed to it? Who assembled it? What was the context? What was the mission the plan was set to address?Were the Co-ops asked their opinion? Were the meats plants? We would be very curious to know. The only absolute certainty is that the farmers were never asked. 

Every aspect of Irish farming and primary food production now appears to be in deep trouble. We lurch from crisis to crisis: inputs, fodder, high interest rates and low prices, inflationary land prices, threats to Derogation, cynical manipulation of cattle prices, unfit-for-purpose schemes, animal disease and the half-hearted responses, and jaw-dropping generational and farm succession problems. The number of Leaving Cert students selecting Agriculture as the first preference for Level 8 Courses is down by 16 per cent, while the CAO is reporting that Round One offers for agricultural courses is down by 11 per cent. The next generation is taking one look and saying: “thanks, but no thanks”. 

And all this to a relentless barrage of negative publicity and barracking from a bewildering chorus of environmental quangos and ‘activists’ all tucked-up nicely on public funding and Government grants.That, my friends, is more-or-less where we are now and it doesn’t really help to pretend otherwise. 

ICMSA is not scared of any of these challenges. We’re not nervous; we’ve seen off much more formidable opponents than the ones we hear on the radio or read on social media who’ve never milked a cow but somehow know everything there is to know about our lives and practices. We’ll take care of our end of the debate and you members need never worry that your opinions and interests won’t be represented. ICMSA will be there and representing you with the same vigour and commitment that we’ve demonstrated for almost 75 years. Our efforts and commitment won’t lessen – and they weren’t the problem anyway. The problem here is the lack of a plan; the lack of any understandable and agreed-upon idea that ‘we are here, and we need to get over there by (A) 2030 and we need to be there by (B) 2035’. 

That’s why we have called for a full Irish Farm & Agri Summit to be held early next year after the General Election, which appears ‘nailed on’ for this winter. ICMSA is convinced that we need all parties and responsible farm organisations sitting down for a prolonged period (this won’t be done in a week) and only emerging when we have a plan that details where we are going, by when, and in what stages. Such a roadmap is desperately required, and we will push whoever is in Government at the year’s end to set up such a summit.No more ‘making it up as we go along’. No more ‘playing by ear’. Everyone has to know where we are going; and everyone has to know what they have to do to get there. There’s been a cost to not having a plan and the costs has been paid, almost exclusively, by the farmers.