MICHAEL BERKERY is to retire as general secretary of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), a post he has held for more than 25 years.
Mr Berkery (59), from Toomevara, Co Tipperary, announced his intention to retire at a national executive meeting of the organisation he joined more than 30 years ago.
Uncompromising in his pursuit of farming interests, he had earned the reputation of being a "hard man" of agriculture, who ran the organisation with an iron fist.
However, his political judgment was questioned by some in and outside of his own organisation earlier this year over his organisation's stance on the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
At its annual general meeting last January, IFA president Pádraig Walshe told EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel that it would recommend a Yes vote in the referendum, an endorsement she described as "a huge gift".
By mid-April, against the background of the possibility of a negative WTO deal on agriculture, the IFA leadership had moved to making its support for Lisbon conditional on Ireland using its veto to stop this happening.
It held one of the largest street protests seen in Dublin in recent years when 10,000 farmers and supporters from the sector heard Mr Walshe say that if there was a "WTO sell-out, I could not credibly ask farmers to vote Yes in the Lisbon referendum".
This stance continued until June 2nd when the IFA came out in support of a Yes vote, having said it had received an assurance from Taoiseach Brian Cowen to veto a deal which would be harmful to Ireland.
Although the organisation spent a large amount of money in advertisements and publicity urging a Yes vote after that decision was taken - some say nearly €750,000 - the treaty was rejected. Following the result, Mr Berkery told The Irish Timesthat his information was that a higher proportion of farmers voted for Lisbon than any other sector of Irish society.
Appointed general secretary in April 1983, Mr Berkery served alongside eight IFA presidents: Donie Cashman, Joe Rea, Tom Clinton, Alan Gillis, John Donnelly, Tom Parlon, John Dillon and Pádraig Walshe.
With responsibility for managing the IFA, including representation and negotiations with Government departments, the EU, State agencies, agri-business and its service industries, he was at the core of all the major events in agriculture over that period.
Mr Walshe said Mr Berkery had driven all the major IFA campaigns, from the milk quota campaign in 1983-84 to Cap reform and the introduction of the beef premium and area aid payment system, GATT - the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - the beef blockade of 2001, the exposure of double standards on Brazilian beef and IFA's World Trade Organisation strategy.
"He has led IFA's negotiations in social partnership from the start in 1987 and has an outstanding record. It is fair to say that his political judgment and negotiating skills have delivered on issues time and again and greatly improved the incomes of Irish farmers," Mr Walshe said in a tribute.
Mr Berkery is to remain as general secretary until his successor is appointed, a process which, the IFA says, could take some months.