Farming family

They seem to be oblivious to the fact that agricultural contractors do the majority of machinery work on Irish farms, yet they are not considered as part of the ‘farming family’. And the DAFM is not on its own. I rarely, if ever, hear any of our farming leaders say, we are glad we have you, you are doing a great job, we could not manage without you. With the greatest respect, farmers cannot do without the services of an agricultural contractor. If farmers had to purchase their own machinery, they would be bankrupt very quickly and if anyone thinks farmers could eliminate the need for contractors by sharing machinery or being part of a machinery ring, forget it. Variations on both these options have been tried, in Ireland the UK, and other countries and they simply have not worked as a reliable way to supplant contractors. No group, other than agricultural contractors, has the guts to risk investing in incredibly high-cost smart tech agricultural machinery needed by farmers, without which their production costs would skyrocket. In the volatile world we now live in and the threat of extraordinary tariffs on agricultural products, contractors will continue to be a vital part of a farmer’s life, helping to keep production costs as low as possible. It is high time that contractors are given the respect they deserve for the vital contribution they make as part of a broad agricultural family.

Contractors excluded

Some time ago, PAC Ireland petitioned the European Parliament to allow the Irish Government to allocate some of the European farming machinery grants to agricultural contractors. Our petition was heard, and the reply was simple, if they wished to do so there was no reason why our Government could not allow agricultural contractors access to grants. Even Phil Hogan as agricultural commissioner, stated it was down to the Irish Government to decide how grant money should be allocated. Yet, still, agricultural contractors continue to be excluded with no justification or explanation as to why. Agricultural contractors are excluded from everything in in relation to future planning for the farming sector. Yet much of the work required to implement these policies and plans will require huge input from the agricultural contracting sector.

It was the same when the sugar beet industry was summarily closed down in Ireland. Not a thought was given to the agricultural contractors who were left with redundant sugar beet machinery, that still had to be paid for. I spent a week in the High Court fighting for PAC Ireland members, and contractors in general, to be included in the compensation package. The result was over €7m allocated to sugar beet contractors. But it did not come easy and if PAC Ireland had not gone in with our guns blazing, contractors would have been offered nothing.

Farmers without land 

The DAFM must put right the exclusion of agricultural contractors by taking a leaf out of the UK’s book. There, contractors are viewed as ‘farmers without land’ – it is time the same level of respect is shown to contractors here.