Minister 'out of touch' accuses IFA

AN ASSERTION by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith on RTE's 'Drivetime' programme on Thursday that he does not accept claims that farm income figures are around one-third of public sector earnings, has been challenged by IFA President Padraig Walshe.

And the farm leader accused the Minister of being in denial in his efforts to defend the indefensible cuts being proposed on farm families who will be trying to feed their families on average farm incomes of approximately €15,000 in 2009.

"Unfortunately, it appears that the Minister and his department are totally out of touch with the people they are supposed to be representing within Government", Mr Walshe said.

He added: "the facts of the matter are that average family farm incomes in 2008, published this week in the Teagasc National Farm Survey, were just under €17,000. This is one third of the average public sector earnings in 2008 of €50,300. Both sets of figures include full and part-time workers and are therefore directly comparable".

Mr Walshe said that poor commodity prices across all agriculture sectors were already driving farm incomes to historically low levels and the draconian cuts imposed by Minister Smith would reduce thousands of farm family incomes below the breadline.

At the same time, inaction by the Government on reducing input costs was undermining the competitiveness of the export-driven agri-food sector.