Beef, calves and communication topped the list of topics at the IFA election hustings in Ballincollig, Co Cork on Thursday night between John Coughlan, Tim Cullinan and Angus Woods.

The presidential candidates at the IFA election hustings in Cork.

While there was an element of bite between Tim Cullinan and Angus Woods over the IFA position on the beef protests, it seemed to lack the edge and tension of the 2015 election campaign.

Financial trouble

Saying the organisation had “a responsibility to act responsibly”, Angus Woods said 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 UK prices. There’s a lot of farmers in real financial trouble at the moment because they can’t get cattle killed.”

Tim Cullinan said the split came about because of the lack of strong leadership. He was also critical of the current make-up of schemes.

“At the moment, everyone is taking money from these instead of farmers themselves. A straight coupled payment is what we need.”

Transparency

Both John Coughlan and Woods said there was a need for more transparency at meetings, suggesting there should be cameras in national council meetings so the members could see who is debating the issues.

Well over 200 people attended the IFA election hustings in Cork.

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

Calves

The admission from Teagasc that it hadn’t examined the male calf issue when planning for dairy expansion was described as disappointing by John Coughlan, who said the advisory body needed to be held to account.

Tim Cullinan suggested looking beyond the ferries for exporting calves, saying “we could fly the calves out”.

Blaming farmers

Commenting on yesterday’s EPA press release on greenhouse gas emissions, with agriculture responsible for one third, John Coughlan said: “These have increased by 1% since 1990, yet our production has increased by over 40%.

"Our Government and our agencies are willing to blame farmers, the one group of people who supported the economy for the last 12 years, and now we’re being hammered while everyone else can drive or fly where they like and increase emissions.”

He suggested 40% of the carbon tax should be ring-fenced for farmers to create a green farming fund.