Farmers' body invites politicians to outline solutions pre-election

Politicians are to be invited to address meetings of members of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) in advance of the general election, the association announced yesterday.

IFA president Pádraig Walshe said the organisation would be interested in hearing how aspirant governments proposed to tackle the coming World Trade Organisation talks and the EU budget post-2013, which would prove critical for farmers.

Launching a pre-election submission for the political parties and candidates, Mr Walshe said farmers wanted key issues addressed. These were the:

Removal of bureaucracy;

Restoration of capital gains tax relief where proceeds from the sale of land by farmers are reinvested in farmland;

Protection of the live export trade;

Raising of the age limit for BSE testing;

Reform of PRSI pensions for low-income farmers and self-employed spouses on farms; and

Co-ordination of approaches to developing renewable energy.

Mr Walshe said "competitive farming must be supported through measures to improve scale and efficiency".