OPENING DAY:AN ESTIMATED 70,000 people attended the opening day of the National Ploughing Championships in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny in blazing sunshine on the giant 600-acre site.
Yesterday saw Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan and Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny visit the site and the Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew. Also on site was Minister of State for Food Trevor Sargent.
Officially opening the championships, the Tánaiste said she firmly believed that the future of agriculture and for those in the sector had never been better.
"For the first time in my lifetime, global demand for food outstripped supply. Secure supply has been the European norm for so many years, that we may have come to taking it for granted," she said.
"Developments in recent years have however highlighted the importance of agriculture as being at the centre of major global challenges," she said.
She said as world populations and incomes increased, so too would demand for food. Ireland, as an exporting country, was well placed to take advantage of this.
The Taoiseach said agriculture was a very important part of the Irish economy. He was very happy to see the numbers of young people seeking agricultural education was growing and this was very welcome and the best indicator of confidence in the industry.
President of the Irish Farmers' Association Pádraig Walshe used the occasion to criticise Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, who will attend the championships today, for failing to make the case to Brussels to extend the end-of-year deadline for the Farm Waste Management Scheme.
He said that for various reasons, 10,000 farmers would have difficulty completing the work under the scheme before the end of the year.
"I am calling on the Minister to make a case to Brussels to extend the deadline to September 30th next year," said Mr Walshe who accused the department of showing no flexibility on the deadline.
He said the poor weather in the summer and autumn had created major problems and this should be recognised by the department as farmers were spending €1.5 billion this year on the scheme.
Speaking from the championships in Kilkenny, Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed said he had been angered by reports that the Government has ruled out extending the Farm Waste Management Scheme deadline beyond December 31st.
He said he did not accept the deadline could not be extended once a compelling case was made to the EU and his party would pursue this matter when the Dáil resumes today.
"This refusal to extend the deadline is completely unjustified and I find it hard to see how the Minister and the department's hard-headed adherence to December 31st is in anybody's interest," he said.