Agriculture general stays cool in a crisis

WORKING LIFE: After tackling BSE and the foot-and-mouth crisis, John Malone sees plenty of new challenges ahead at the Department of Agriculture, writes Ella Shanahan.

It's a measure of John Malone's management style that during the course of the foot-and-mouth crisis last year, he never once had to ask any of his staff to work overtime - they all volunteered.

"All" here means the 4,500 civil servants in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, who are based in 90 locations around the State, with over 1,000 in Dublin. Like every good general, the head of the third-largest Government Department led by example, extending his usual 12-hour day for as many hours as were required to keep the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease at bay.

For Mr Malone and his Department last year was indeed the best of times and the worst of times, with the foot-and-mouth outbreak following closely on the drastic measures taken to ensure the containment of BSE.

That involved destroying 270,000 cattle under the Purchase for Destruction Scheme, something he, as a farmer's son, found disagreeable.

"It's not something we ever feel we should be doing, but if you're running a scheme like that, it has to be done properly and has to make its contribution to help the beef industry here, and it definitely underpinned producer prices."

On foot-and-mouth, he says the response of the public was "remarkable", adding: "I suppose, ironically, it was an extremely difficult year for the Department but most people inside and outside saw it as a good year for the Department."

Having spent four and a half years in the top job at Agriculture House, Mr Malone has been described as being "understated", "solid", "very cool under pressure" and "very straightforward". He is said to select his team well, whatever the issue, and then give them their heads.

"He's not the type of fellow who's ringing back a quarter of an hour later to see if something is done. And he gets on well with Finance and the Taoiseach's Departments - the key Departments," says one senior Department of Agriculture official.

Another says that running this Department is about a lot more than numbers. "It's into different functions; some might argue there shouldn't be so many functions. There's also the European dimension."

Agriculture policy has become much more complex, Mr Malone says. Where previously it was concerned almost solely with food production, there are now different pressures and interests to contend with. Rural development has been added to the Department's remit. It is concerned with agribusiness, the environment, sustainable agriculture and food safety, as well as the direct interface with farming.

"We have had to do a lot of thinking about our role. Direct payments have brought us in as a big service provider. We have a huge customer base now - 1.4 million individual payment cheques, amounting to over €1.27 billion (£1 billion). We have had 600,000 individual applications (for EU funding) coming from the MacSharry reforms of 1992. Suddenly, we had a new client base - virtually every farmer in the country is a client now. We have to be customer-driven.

"The pace of what's happening at international level has quickened. Take the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] itself: there was a reform agreed in the context of Agenda 2000. Now there is a prospect of a mid-term review some time later this year, effectively two-and-a-half years after. Looking back at the CAP, if it was reformed every 10 years, it was a big deal.

"Enlargement of the EU is a huge political and economic initiative; it will add one-third in one go to the EU. And then the WTO [World Trade Organisation] - we have to be prepared and have our homework done and strategies and objectives clearly thought out."

One of the biggest challenges Mr Malone sees ahead is to address the changing role of agriculture in society and ensure that the Department's policies are relevant. The reluctance of young people to become farmers is one problem.

"Any industry has to have new blood coming in, and if it doesn't, it's in trouble. The job of the Department is to ensure that the right policies are there, that the people entering are properly educated and trained, that there are proper supports there and that there is encouragement - some incentives there - for people entering the sector," he says.

With half of all farmers now earning an income outside the farm, there has to be a refocus on rural development, on facilities, education, infrastructure and local enterprise, he says. "A lot of those issues are not directly within the control of the Department, but we are seen as the lead Department in that area. We have to give leadership and have a clearly thought- out approach to rural development.

"That entails interacting with a lot of other departments. One of the things the modern civil service has got better at is departments working collectively on issues."

Meeting the increasing expectations and demands of consumers has provided a whole range of challenges for the food industry, he says, and "one of the big things is that the food industry is up there with the play". And the Department is changing its focus by diverting its grants for the food industry from bricks and mortar to staff training.

"We have a big role in getting across that we are working in the interests of consumers. There was some criticism that we weren't consumer-oriented. It's not a debate that has been peculiar to the Department in this country. We have tried to get more pro-active. We have a new consumer liaison panel. It's something you have to watch all the time. It requires continuous assessment and continuous improvement."

Internally, the Department has made significant advances in IT. There is an animal traceability system, primarily for cattle. There is also a mapping system for each individual parcel of land. Next comes a database for EU premium payments, and soon there will be a move to electronic payments.

"We're anxious to take as much paper out of the system as we can, to share information, where the farmer or processor is seen as a client and information is available to be used for the different schemes and different purposes. We have made some strides on that but we have a distance to go," he says.

One of the other major developments in the Department is the ongoing implementation of the Strategic Management Initiative, which has reached the third statement of strategy now.

"That allows us to use our resources better; staff have a better understanding of where their job fits into the overall scheme of things and you're able to measure whether you're making progress or giving value for money and it helps us identify our priorities," he explains.

Having worked in the Department of Agriculture since 1969, John Malone is perhaps understandably defensive when asked about the perception that the Department is too closely allied to the meat industry.

"Whether it's a fair perception is the real question," he replies. "The reality is that 40 per cent of Irish agriculture is beef. We have a well-developed meat industry - maybe not as developed as it should be - but it is in the context of agriculture and economically. You have to work with every industry, with dairying, with pigmeat, poultry, a whole range of different industries, and it's a working relationship. Nothing came out of the Beef Tribunal to show an improper relationship between the Department and the beef industry."

John Malone (51) was born in Portroe near Nenagh in Co Tipperary, where his brother, Matt, farms and manages a cattle mart. After St Flannan's College in Ennis, he joined the Department and first came to prominence when he was appointed press officer; he was very highly regarded both for his news sense and straight talking. He did a degree in politics and economics at night at UCD. Subsequently, he was head of the dairy division, worked on policy in the veterinary area and was heavily involved in the Agenda 2000 negotiations.

He is interested in all kinds of sport - he played hurling and rugby and now tries to play golf although he says he thinks he didn't play any at all last year. He tries to keep free time for his children, Fergal (18) who is doing commerce in UCD; Elma (16), Laura (15), Cian (I3) and Ruth (12). Since he frequently has to play host to visiting agriculture ministers and officials from other EU countries, it helps that he is a bit of a foodie. He would like to know more about wine but his wife, Mary, compensates for that one lack - she's done the wine course he really wants to do.