THIRTY PER cent of farmers who had off-farm jobs lost them from June 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, and 52 per cent of these were in construction, a National Rural Development Conference in Cork has been told.
Giving new figures to the conference, David Meredith of Teagasc’s rural economy research centre said the Celtic Tiger had not passed rural Ireland but had affected rural communities differently.
“There were two primary industries in rural Ireland, agriculture and manufacturing, and these have been in long-term decline in rural Ireland,” he told the 200 delegates.
“People losing their jobs in these sectors were moving into the construction sector, so the construction boom masked the really serious problem we had in employment in rural Ireland.
“What we are seeing now is that we are unmasking the boom and we are beginning to see the impact of long-term changes in the structure of the rural economy from a traditional farming/agricultural base.”
He said statistics also showed men were more highly exposed in rural areas to unemployment than women, where the female unemployment rate only began to rise in mid-2008 whereas it began for men six months earlier.
He said the collapse of the financial sector led to a downturn in construction which hit men first but then flowed into the retail sectors where there was larger female employment.
“The other key area for female employment is in education, health and social work. The concern would be that come the next budget there could be fairly significant cuts there, so we may see an increase in unemployment.”
Dr Fiona Thorne, a Teagasc economist, said spending on farm land, debt reduction, capital investment and farm equipment was expected to be moderate this year.
She said the real issue was the extent to which Irish farmers had the capacity to remain liquid and have adequate cash to meet repayments as they fell due this year, as liquidity on dairy and tillage farms was estimated to be at a 10-year low in 2009.
“The number of viable farm businesses is estimated to be as low as one in five farms in 2009,” she told the conference.
Prof Gerry Boyle, director of Teagasc, said a change in mindset was needed in the farming community to exploit the opportunities which existed. It was important agriculture remained at the centre of developments in rural Ireland.
He said a key requirement was the recognition that rural areas needed investment in knowledge capital and innovation to realise their enormous potential for development but this was largely absent.