Members of the IFA in Donegal will get their chance to vote in the forthcoming IFA elections next month.
The candidates for President are Kilkenny County Chairman John Bryan from Inistioge, Deputy President Derek Deane from Hacketstown, Co Carlow and National Dairy Chairman Richard Kennedy from Clarina, Co Limerick.
There are a total of 15 candidates for the top six IFA positions, which are directly elected by the Association’s 85,000 members, namely president, deputy president and the four regional vice presidents covering Munster, South Leinster, Ulster/North Leinster and Connacht.
The three candidates vying to become regional vice-presidents in Ulster/North Leinster were in Raphoe to address the November meeting of the Co. Donegal executive of the IFA.
Patrick Donnelly from Westmeath expressed his anger with the current government.
“I believe that the tactic of lobbying the government – that is broke and that has ripped us off and cannot be trusted – is a waste of time,” he declared.
He said that they needed to tackle the problem of lost prices for commodities and to battle to get the cuts in agriculture funding reversed.
John Waters from Longford blasted proposals to bring in electronic sheep tagging and was also critical of the mark up in prices after leaving the farm gate.
“We cannot survive if this continues,” he said, suggesting that producers, processors and retailers are brought together to sit down and discuss matters.
Mary Sherry, from Co. Monaghan, spoke about the need to put pressure on the Department of Agriculture and expressed concern about the impact that the ending of REPs will have on Donegal farmers.