Madam, - I have always resisted the repeated temptation to point out the more glaring inaccuracies in Mary Raftery's articles about farming on the grounds that there is nothing to be gained from debating a complex subject with someone who is not only ignorant of the problem on which she holds forth, but who actually seems to glory in that ignorance.
Unfortunately, her column of August 2nd ("Farmers need work no more") demonstrated such a level of septic incomprehension that I must put aside the habit of not engaging with her and try, as directly as I can, to point out the more spectacular gaps in her knowledge.
The snide attempt to portray farmers as spongers and freeloaders can be dealt with as quickly as we can grasp the facts. Whatever about Ms Raftery's commitment to so doing, here they are for everyone else.
EU support for agriculture has now taken the form of direct payment and this applies to all 27 member-states in some form or another. Last Wednesday's Teagasc farm income figures for 2006 demonstrated conclusively the very low income figures for full-time farmers. The average income of a full-time farmer, at €34,500, was €8,200 less than his or her counterpart in the public service. For that princely amount, a farmer will work every day of every week. And just this week it was reported in the farming press that certain classes of farmer, notably beef and sheep breeders, were actually working for nothing, or less.
I strongly suspect that, broken into the kind of hourly rate so beloved of commentators, farm incomes would evoke howls of outrage from an Irish Timescolumnist were they offered to teachers, social workers or - dare I say it? - journalists.
Irish farming is the foundation stone of our wider agri-processing sector and is therefore responsible for a value added contribution of €5.5 billion annually and the gainful and highly skilled employment of at least 54,000 people. By the way, the exports resulting from the sector that Ms Raftery airily dismisses as a glorified welfare operation amount to €5.7 billion, which equals 10 per cent of the country's total exports.
Your columnist seems overly exercised by the thought that the direct payments from the taxpayer do not entitle her to tramp through the privately owned land of farmers. What a strange conclusion at which to arrive! Do direct payments from the taxpayers to dentists or doctors extinguish their rights to their private property? Has Ms Raftery ever received a direct payment from the Irish State? Did it insist on some quid pro quo involving the sacrifice of her constitutional rights in return for that payment? All very strange.
Ms Raftery concludes with a lofty declaration: "We have to start asking tough questions about exactly what we are paying for and why." Anyone who paid out their €1.60 for their Irish Timesin the expectation of learning something about the real nature and role of Irish farming would do very well to follow her advice. - Yours, etc,
CIARAN DOLAN, General Secretary, ICMSA, John Feely House, Limerick.
Madam, - Mary Rafterty's column of August 2nd, citing the farm income statistics published by Teagasc, suggests that we ask some tough questions. These have been already asked by Irish Rural Link, an organisation whose members work to ensure sustainable rural communities.
If, at the beginning of our EU membership, we had announced the following outcomes we would be deemed at least incredible and at worst raving mad:
The reduction of the number involved in farming from over 200,000 to the present 100,000 and a projection that by 2015 the figurer will be down to 40,000.
• The complete loss of the sugar industry.
• Almost total dependence on subsidies for farm income.
• Up to 60,000 involved in part time-farming.
• Massive dependence on the building industry.
• The almost total disappearance of agricultural colleges.
The reality is that we have now developed a farming and land use system that is totally dependent on taxpayers for support and at the same time manages to yield an income to farmers that requires a part-time job as well.
The tough questions are about the type and quality of food and the consumer's wish to pay for it. They are about the type of farm systems suitable to small holdings and the necessary research and development required, avoiding the type of failure we are experiencing. They are about how we can persuade young rural people that there is some sort of future for them. The existing evidence suggest they have already decided and are moving on.
Finally, there is now a need to define seriously a new vision for rural Ireland in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability. Such a vision requires cross-departmental involvement and the wider rural community.
The EU subsidies are due to end in 2013. We will then have two choices: to continue with subsidies, not from EU but from the Exchequer, or to use the existing European money to develop new ideas in terms of use of land, food production and the wider rural economy. Time is running out. - Yours, etc,
SEAMUS BOLAND, CEO, Irish Rural Link, Moate, Co Westmeath.