This article is from page 60 of the 2012-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 60 JPG
AFTER four years at the helm of the largest farming organisation in the county, Ennis farmer Michael Lynch has called time on his period as Clare Chairperson of the IFA.
At last week’s IFA AGM in Ennis, Michael handed over the reins of power to Ardnacrusha farmer Andrew Dundas.
Over the last four years, Michael has overseen some of the most interesting times in Irish farm history. After taking over from long-term IFA stalwart Seamus Murphy in 2008, he was immediately put to work dealing with falling commodity prices, disastrous weather conditions and pressures both from Brussels and the WTO.
“I think 2008 and 2009 were the most difficult years. We had very difficult weather conditions in those years and a collapse in prices, especially in 2009. It was a very expensive year, feed was scarce and the weather was so bad. A lot of farmers lost a lot of money in that year,” said Michael.
“There has been so much going on in farming over the last few years and a lot of challenges. Even when the prices and the weather started to improve, we had the cutbacks in all the schemes – in the REPS, the Retirement Schemes and the Installa- tion Aid for new farmers.
“There are always problems but I guess that 2008 and 2009 were the busiest years – we were certainly kept going then. I had a very good team of officers around me, which makes it a lot easier, and a good staff as well.
“It was an enjoyable experience though. A lot of the time you might be cursing, trying to round up people to go to Dublin for a protest when people are busy and don’t want to do. It is demanding but there is great ca- maraderie with the people that you meet, both in Clare and at the national level.”
Michael also paid tribute to incoming chairman Andrew Dundas.
“Andrew is a good chap. He’s a good farmer and he has plenty of experience. The organisation is in very safe hands for the next few years,” he said.
“He is a very capable and intelligent guy who is a good operator himself and will make a great job of it.” In next week’s Clare People , Andrew Ha milton spea ks to the new IFA cha ir person Andrew Dunda s who will la y out his vision for fa r ming in Cla re over the next t wo yea rs.