The future of Irish farming lies in the hands of Dr Franz Fischler, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture. Seán MacConnell examines his career and his relationship with Ireland
Last week in Brussels, when Dr Franz Fischler was giving a press conference on the impact of his plan to reform the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, he singled out the Irish beef industry for special mention.
His plan to decouple production from subsidies would not, he told journalists, mean the end of the Irish beef industry or, for that matter, the demise of the Sunday roast.
What was interesting about the comment was that few non-Irish people in Brussels know more about Ireland and how we do business here than does Dr Fischler.
Dr Fischler (57), who was born in Absam, in the Austrian Tyrol, has been a frequent visitor to Ireland for both business and pleasure. He professes a great affection for this country and its people, and when his four children were teenagers he took them to Ireland during most summers to help them learn English. He also frequently visits relatives who live in Cork.
A lover of mountains, the commissioner likes nothing better than to climb in Kerry when he visits this country socially, even though he describes our best mountains as "nice little hills".
Dr Fischler was born of mountain stock. He came early to farming, having to take over his grandparents' small farm at the age of 14 while he was attending the Franziskaner gymnasium school in the Tyrol.
Those early experiences led him to study agriculture at the University of Agricultural Science in Vienna, from which he graduated in 1973.
While studying there, his practical tasks included working on a mixed farm in Austria, and he spent a two-month traineeship on a dairy farm in Sweden. He worked in the university at the department of regional planning of the Institute for Farm Management in Vienna until 1979, when he joined the Tyrol Chamber of Agriculture, becoming its director in 1985.
In 1989, he became Federal Minister for Agriculture and Forestry, and it was there while negotiating Austria's entry to the EU that he came into frequent contact with Irish officials in Brussels.
They remember his constant good humour, his ability to understand the sub-text of what was being said during the negotiations and his interest in this country.
In 1990, he was elected to the Austrian Parliament for the first time, and this was repeated in 1994, one year before his appointment as Commissioner for Agriculture in 1995.
As Commissioner for Agriculture, he surrounded himself with Irish officials, and to this day credits people like his first spokesman, Tipperary-born Gerry Kelly, with having helped him greatly in his first term as commissioner. He was reappointed in 1999.
Dr Fischer continues to farm a small family holding in the Tyrol, which he visits as often as his work allows.
A staunch, traditional Roman Catholic, the commissioner likes the company of farmers and hearing their views. Many will remember a stunning performance he gave at an Irish Farmers' Association question-and-answer session about three years ago at which he got the better of his critics in a rough-and-tumble debate in the Green Isle Hotel . . . and clearly enjoyed it.
During his stewardship of agriculture, Dr Fischler has been very sympathetic to the problems in Irish agriculture.
He has a good personal and working relationship with the EU's longest-serving Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh.
When the former agriculture commissioner, Mr Ray MacSharry, reformed the CAP, he was accused of finding "an Irish solution to an EU problem".
Dr Fischler's reforms smack of "an Austrian solution to an EU problem", but with many similarities between Irish and Austrian agriculture, this may be to our advantage.