THE YEAR 1996 was called an annus horribilis by the chairman of Macra na Feirme, Mr Peter Kiely, at his organisation's national conference in Cork, which ended last night.
Mr Kiely said it had been a very difficult year for young farmers and farming in general.
"I hardly need to mention BSE and angel dust to illustrate what I mean. The economic effect of this is enormous for farmers and significant for the economy as a whole. Less money in a farmer's pocket means less money in everybody's pocket," he said.
But money was not the most important issue involved. What was involved was the safety of food and public confidence in it, he said.
Calling for a united front involving all sectors of society to help resolve the crisis, Mr Kiely said farming was difficult enough without the hammering it was currently getting from all sides.
"In recent weeks we have been accused of being whingers and spongers" and statements from trade union sources on BSE and other issues had been hurtful. He accepted there were criminal elements in agriculture as in every other sector of society.
It would be wrong to insult all farmers for the activities of a few. "In a small country like Ireland, where we all to an extent rely on one another, it would be more appropriate for sectional leaders to promote harmony, not hate."
Mr Kiely said Government job creation policies discriminated against rural Ireland. It had no commitment to create jobs outside the main cities and young people had no option but to move to Dublin or further afield for work.
Mr Maurice Fitzpatrick, an agriculture specialist with the Trustee Savings Bank, addressed one of the other big issues at the conference, the viability of family farms in Ireland.
He said the widely held view that most farmers were collecting, huge, amounts of taxpayers money through the post was false as far as the majority of farmers was concerned.
He produced figures which indicated that, in 1994, about two thirds of Irish farmers received less than £4,000 in supports some 40 per cent received less than £2,000 and, in total, about 90 per cent of all farmers received less than £10,000, with 3.5 per cent receiving more than £20,000.