Radical or redundant?

The new Government make-up reflects the voting preferences of the electorate, at least regarding the main elements of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. As the parties that could find common ground in a Programme for Government, they are natural coalition partners. Independent TDs make up the slack for a secure Dáil majority. They have proved in the past to be reliable when it comes to sticking if and when the going gets tough. None of the minor parties seem to have the bottle to face into governing, without insisting on disproportionate demands being met, far exceeding their electoral mandate. We must hope for a stable government for the next five years. We must also hope for a radical approach towards resolving the challenges, known and unknown, facing the country. Rural Ireland will hope that the influence of rural Independents, will be reflected in the actual delivery of the Programme for Government. Reckless spending as a substitute for efficiency gains would represent a poor return for our taxes. Just throwing money at problems hasn’t worked in the past and it won’t work in the future. We are in a relatively good place, provided we manage our public finances prudently, prioritise wisely and prepare for the economic challenges ahead. We have full employment, a strongly growing economy, budget surpluses, high educational standards and opportunities, a well-fed population and the highest life expectancy in the EU.
This year will be an important year for Ireland. With Trump in the White House and the EU declining in competitiveness, the Irish Government will need to hit the ground running on housing, climate, water, infrastructure and immigration. There is no room for complacency.
Irish farmers continue to make a valuable contribution to the Irish economy. This is especially true in many parts of rural Ireland where farm output continues to be the major contributor of economic activity. Like the best attributes of Irish butter, income from food production and processing spreads richly and widely across rural communities. Farm income is spent locally many times over, as Ciaran Fitzgerald so clearly confirms in his column in these pages.
The year ahead may resolve several imponderables for Irish farmers, for better or worse. By year’s end, we should know whether the Nitrates Derogation will continue. If water quality stabilises or improves further, the outlook is positive. We must hope for a longer-term confirmation of retention to allow farmers to plan. A continuing threat to the derogation, or continuing reductions are, both demoralising and erode confidence among the farming community. Likewise, by year’s end, we are likely to know the outcome of the much-heralded EU trade deals with the South American countries as well as with Canada. Given the instability of global trade currently and the delicate state of several European economies, most notably Germany and France, there is every reason to believe that both contentious trade deals will be ratified, perhaps with some further reassurances to alleviate the concerns of EU beef producers. 

Meanwhile, price is still a key determinant of both confidence and economic wellbeing for Irish farmers. The surge in beef and sheep prices is both welcome and timely. Both sectors have been under significant income and confidence pressures, as evidenced by the continuing reduction in both suckler farms and sheep production. Produce prices are not the only reason for the decline in numbers, as labour, workload, age and lack of generational renewal are co-causes; but price still dominates, even as a short-term delaying mechanism pending a resolution of other structural issues facing Irish farming.