IFA abandons youth group plan

The Irish Farmers' Association has agreed not to establish a Young Farmers' Committee which would have brought it into direct…

The Irish Farmers' Association has agreed not to establish a Young Farmers' Committee which would have brought it into direct conflict with Macra na Feirme.

Macra, the youth farm organisation, had also faced the prospect of losing representation on the IFA's national council if reorganisation proposals being discussed yesterday had been agreed.

The wide-ranging structural reorganisation package had been drawn up last summer for the IFA by the former secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Michael Dowling.

The package, which proposed a dramatic cut in the number of members on the organisation's national council, was to have been agreed and put in place by September last year, but a farm injury to IFA president John Dillon upset that schedule.

READ MORE

Macra had been lobbying hard against the proposal and yesterday a compromise, which will see the IFA set up a project team to encourage young farmers to join the IFA, was established. Macra presidents will still hold their place on the IFA national council.

Discussions were continuing until late last night on the controversial proposal to have IFA county chairpersons represent the county on the national council, replacing the current delegate.

This would mean reducing the council to around 50 people, just over half the current size.

A proposal to do away with the the post of IFA deputy president was also being debated, in what would be a difficult decision in this IFA election year.

Less divisive but nevertheless controversial was the plan to introduce weighted branch voting for use in the national elections.