The candidates are so close that no one is prepared to predict the result when the 85,000 IFA members vote for a new president in the next few weeks, writes Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent
Everyone loves an election and few relish an election more than farmers, who are currently holding one for the presidency of the Irish Farmers' Association.
Three candidates have been nominated, and according to one observer they have been "hurtling around the country like three sheets in the wind" seeking the job. Ruaidhri Deasy, Raymond O'Malley and Padraig Walshe, are the trio who are slogging it out for the post being vacated next January by John Dillon, who has held the presidential job for the past four years.
The truth is that this IFA election race has been going on between the three candidates since Dillon was elected. He defeated both Walshe and O'Malley last time out. They had a bad day then, but on the same occasion Ruaidhri Deasy was elected deputy president of the organisation.
Insiders believe that Deasy, son of one of the founding fathers and a former president of the organisation, Ricard Deasy, will determine the outcome of the current race. He is regarded by some as the candidate likely to have his transfers decide the issue between Walshe and O'Malley. Others do not accept this and say, on the Deasy name alone, he will be the second last man standing and it will be transfers from either of the other two that will decide the outcome.
Walshe has been around the block too. He has the backing of most of the dairy farmers, and his Co Laois base and his work in Macra na Feirme and elsewhere put him in a strong position, making him a hard man to beat.
However, Co Louth-based O'Malley was runner-up to Dillon last time, and even though Walshe ran Dillon very closely on first preference votes, the transfers of John Boylan - the fourth candidate last time - promoted O'Malley to second place.
This time out, Co Monaghan-based Boylan is backing Walshe's candidacy and Co Monaghan votes should go to him rather than O'Malley. O'Malley, however, has strong support on the east coast and in parts of the west, and although a new system of voting has been introduced to replace the one-branch-one vote, the Co Louth-based beef farmer could take the prize.
Voting runs from December 1st to 16th, and the national count will be held in Dublin on December 20th. And the prize for the winner? Four years of unpaid service to farmers, with the IFA paying a worker to replace him on the farm, high media exposure and perhaps a future in national politics.
The presidential men: the candidates have their say
Pádraig Walshe
Why he considers himself the best person for the job: "My proven ability over the past 20 years to put money in farmers' pockets and my track record and steely resolve in negotiation combined with my ability to follow through until issues are finalised. This, together with my in-depth knowledge of and passion for the critical issues affecting farmers at home, in Europe and on the world stage, gives me the attributes to effectively represent all farmers. Also, I never promise what I cannot deliver."
Pádraig Walshe is the national treasurer of the IFA. He and his wife Ella run a model farm outside Durrow, Co Laois and he has had a long and distinguished career in farming politics. The couple have four children, Julianne (21), Catherine (20), Elma (18) and Pat (15). His mother, Sheila, is also active on the family farm.
He can cite a record of 25 years of active service and delivery for farmers, including a term as president of Macra na Feirme, followed by a term as national chairman of the IFA's powerful dairy committee.
Pleasant and outgoing, his roughest time in farming politics was when he disagreed with some of the IFA dairy men over some of the policies being pursued on the issue of milk quotas. He has served at virtually every level in the IFA and has been chairman of Laois IFA. He is currently a member of the IFA National Rural Development Committee.
An able negotiator, Walshe will be remembered for his work in the negotiations surrounding the Agenda 2000 Cap reform. As president of Macra na Feirme, he got the organisation included in the first partnership talks and negotiated the first installation premium for young farmers. Unlike many farmers involved in the IFA he will talk openly about his personal finances and the economics of farming, to which he is passionately committed.
Ruaidhri Deasy
Why he considers himself the best person for the job: "My experience. I know every aspect of farming - dairying, tillage, livestock. I am a self-made farmer, who inherited no land. I have worked hard through IFA to get justice and fair play for farmers in difficult industry situations. I worked for years to develop agriculture in the developing world. I am a natural leader, an effective communicator. I believe in building alliances with other farmers in Ireland and Europe and with consumers. I say what I mean and I do what I say I will do."
Ruaidhri Deasy has been deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association since 2001 and is a son of Ricard Deasy, the National Farmers' Association (NFA) president who led the farmers in their march on Dublin in the 1960s.
He farms a 154-acre sheep and cattle farm at Fortmoy, Aglish, Roscrea, Co Tipperary and rents a further 150 acres for tillage. He is 52 and is married to Marie Istas from Antwerp in Belgium, with six children.
His critics say that the personable Deasy sometimes speaks before he thinks and has incurred the wrath of other rural dwellers by his criticism of rural development schemes.
While his comments that the schemes were sometimes used for "building crooked walls for crazy curates" will not alienate him from his farming constituency, his more liberal approach to access to the land for recreation may do so.
His IFA record is impeccable, having been a member of the IFA review team of Cap 2003 in Luxembourg, a member of the IFA negotiating team on Agenda 2000 in Brussels, a member of the EU Cereals Authority and the Copa Cereals and Arable Committee. He has also been chairman of the IFA National Grain Committee, a member of Teagasc Authority, a board member of IFAC, a chairman of the North Tipperary Executive of the IFA and the IFA representative of the Tipperary Leader.
He was chairman of the Bannow branch of the Wexford IFA and is a former chairman of Ballinascarthy Macra in west Cork.
As a farmers' representative, Ruaidhri Deasy has been successful in negotiating tolerance on sheep/cattle inspections and active in securing farmers' rights in a number of difficult industry situations. If elected, he would become the first IFA president to have been an aid worker, having worked for six years as an Irish Government-funded worker in Zambia, developing dairy farms and rural living conditions.
Raymond O'Malley
Why he considers himself the best person for the job: "I am the best man for the job because I am the only candidate with a plan for the future. That plan is to deliver 40 per cent of the consumer purchase price to farmers, which could increase beef and milk prices. I will also stabilise costs in farming and I am already involved in the biofuel and other energy industries, which I believe will restore wealth creation to farmers through their involvement in what I regard as the future."
Raymond O'Malley is Ulster/north Leinster vice president of the IFA and a very successful beef and tillage farmer from Co Louth. He has a 245-acre enterprise, farming in partnership with his son Conor and brother Edward where they run a nationally recognised cattle-breeding enterprise.
Educated at De La Salle Brothers National and Secondary school in Ardee, Co Louth, he achieved nine As in the Leaving Certificate in 1968 and he studied engineering at Trinity College Dublin, but returned to farming, initially due to financial pressures on the farm.
He joined the IFA in Castlebellingham in 1978. He went on from there to serve on the National Grain Committee 1985-91. Urbane and resourceful, his critics believe he is now too wealthy to understand the problems facing the smaller farmer.
However, his supporters say he is just the man farming needs in the difficult, market-driven times ahead, when entrepreneurs such as O'Malley will know the best way forward. He was elected to the National Livestock Committee in 1993 and became chairman in 1996, coming to national prominence defending Irish beef during the BSE crisis.
He was central to the reopening of live exports to continental Europe in 1998 and opened the Greek market for live animals in 2001 by exporting his own cattle.
The son of a cattle and sheep dealer-exporter from Co Mayo, O'Malley was at the eye of the storm as chairman of the Louth County executive of the IFA during the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001, where he honed his considerable negotiating and media skills.
Heavily involved in the provision of energy crops on farms, he founded Biogreen Energy Products Ltd in 2002 with four Co Wexford farmers. He successfully secured the first excise exemption for biofuels in Ireland in July 2005.