Mr Tom Parlon made a vigorous defence of farmers' interests in his inaugural presidential address to the Irish Farmers' Association yesterday. He called for an immediate cut in interest rates to facilitate the pound joining economic and monetary union at its central rate and said a revaluation would cut right across farmers' interests. He promised a strong campaign against the Santer Commission's plans for beef in its Agenda 2000 document and called for a concerted campaign to regain lost beef markets and to keep open the live cattle trade. And he warned of battles to come over stemming the flight from the land. He faces arguably a more difficult four years in office than any of his predecessors. Mr Parlon and his deputy, Mr John Dillon, had a thoroughgoing victory in the IFA elections last month on the basis of a strong defence of farmers' interests, from which they claim a clear mandate. They were at pains yesterday to emphasise their role as tribunes for grassroots sentiment. They have also vowed to challenge a perception that all farmers are rich, do not pay taxes and are increasingly out of sympathy with urban Ireland. In fact the social and demographic profile of the farming sector shows a much less privileged population than is commonly assumed. Of the 150,000 farm holders, only two-thirds gain their main income from farming; of these only about one-third are clearly commercially viable - and an estimated 24,000 are elderly men without successors. Nearly one-half of farmers are over the age of 55. The distribution of income within the sector is highly uneven. It is not surprising that social researchers have found repeatedly that some of the greatest pockets of poverty are to be found in rural households.
The objectives set by the new IFA leaders are admirable in themselves. But Mr Parlon will need a strategic vision of where Irish agriculture should be going in coming years, as well as a determination to defend established policies, if they are to be put successfully into practice. There is much to be done to counter the pressures coming to bear on Irish agricultural policy from changing international and European trends. They include a new round of negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's liberalisation proposals over the next several years, and a substantial review of the Common Agricultural Policy as the EU prepares for enlargement to take in central and eastern European states. Both sets of pressure will tend to underline the degree to which Irish agricultural incomes now depend on straight subsidy, whether from the State or the EU. It is estimated that at least one-half of income is so sourced. Within the context of these policy reviews it is essential that more effort be made to find markets for quality Irish produce, rather than to assume that subsidies will continue indefinitely. The new leaders will need to co-operate with state agencies and the Government in these strategic respects, just as much as engage in defensive conflicts over the minutiae of price policy, headage payments and quotas. Such an approach would also be calculated to encourage a more sympathetic urban hearing. There have been many changes of attitude flowing through agriculture in recent years which could be turned increasingly to advantage by enterprising farmers. Environmental concerns have obtained a better hearing as they were built into new EU policies and subsidies. The same applies to organic farming. Alternative crops and products have been developed to service a more discerning consumer market. It is high time such opportunities were highlighted more by farming leaders, as well as the defensive concerns that must of necessity preoccupy them.