The Kettle's Boyled: It’s better to lead from the front
The remaining sit-in protestors in Bord Bia Dublin HQ, dubbed 'The Bord Bia 5'. The Bord Bia 5 comprise of IFA Treasurer, Patrick McCormick, Farm Family Chair, Teresa Roche, Wicklow Rural Development Committee member Tom Byrne, Donegal-based Farm Family & Social Affairs Committee member Christine Friel and Cavan Forestry Committee member Richard Moeran.
The ‘never ending story’ of the farmers and their supporters camped out in the offices of an Bord Bia has gone on for far longer than anyone would have expected, and that includes the farmers at the core of the protest. When they turned up they hardly expected to be still there a month later.
If ever an organisation underestimated their opponent, it was the IFA on this occasion. The combination of the proverbial rock and hard place that is Larry Murrin and Minister Martin Heydon was an obstacle they should have planned for, but didn’t.
The IFA is supposed to lead, but reacting isn’t leading. It allowed itself to be drawn into a populist protest by a political party seeking to garner the rural vote, if indeed there is such a thing as a rural vote, and it took the noise around this as support for its actions, but in my view they have misread the public mood. People can’t see the rationale for sacking a person who is doing a good job to the point where cattle prices have been at record highs of late. Trying to dress the protest up as concern for food safety doesn’t fool anyone.
The IFA has painted itself into a corner, and it seems it can’t see a way out. It has to come up not only with a plan to dig itself out of the current impasse and restore faith among members and with government and social partners. The best way to do that might be to tackle nitrates derogation.
Ireland has got its last bite at the derogation cherry, and only the very naïve believe otherwise. In three years’ time we will be in trouble, facing into massive fines that will bleed us dry, but the IFA could come back to the table with a plan to cut herd numbers and increase tillage acreage to make us near enough self-sufficient. That would restore the balance between cattle numbers and available land to take the then reduced slurry output, ending the current madness. If the IFA put a price on that, and came back to the table to negotiate it would get a hearing.
Or it could keep up the current standoff, but that isn’t fooling anybody.
