Beef and communications were the hot topics at the IFA election hustings in Ballincollig, Co Cork last Thursday between John Coughlan, Tim Cullinan and Angus Woods.

Similar to the Tralee hustings two night before, the recent beef protests and the lack of backing for them from the IFA dominated the questions at the Cork IFA hustings.

In response, Angus Woods said the organisation had “a responsibility to act responsibly”, adding that at the time of the last IFA beef protest in 2014, “Irish beef prices were €300/head behind the UK price. When these protests began, we were €20 behind”.

“There’s a lot of farmers in real financial trouble at the moment because they can’t get cattle killed,” he added.

Tim Cullinan said the splitting of farm organisations came about because of the “lack of strong leadership.” He was also critical of the current make-up of farm schemes.

“At the moment, everyone is taking money from these instead of farmers themselves.”

Both John Coughlan and Woods said more transparency was needed at meetings. Both suggested there should be cameras in IFA national council meetings so the members could see who is there and debating the issues.

Woods said this is common practice in Brussels. He also advocated that the minutes of the meetings should be released to members.

Coughlan said having more on-farm meetings would be a great benefit to the organisation.