National Ploughing Championships | Martin Ferris launches Oireachtas report

‘The Future of Farming and Fishing’

Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams with some of the visitors to the Sinn Féin stand at the Ploughing Championships

THE National Ploughing Championships in Athy, County Kildare, was the stage chosen by Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris to launch his report. ‘The Future of Farming and Fishing in the West’.
The Kerry North/West Limerick TD said he was very happy to have been able to present the report to the Oireachtas All-Party Committee and to have received endorsement for the range of measures outlined in it which he believes are necessary to secure the sectors future.
Martin Ferris, along with Agriculture Minister for the Northern Executive Michelle Gildernew, said the report highlights the deep anger and anxieties of the plight of farmers around the country.
It calls for cuts to the sector to be reversed and for a complete reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Talking to visitors at the launch in the Sinn Féin tent, Ferris said that the report involved much consultation with a wide range of people in the farming and fishing sector. As a result it represents an acutely accurate depiction of the current state of the rural economy particularly in the West, and of the kind of progressive strategies needed.
He emphasised that one of the key themes running through the submission is its recommendations to place more emphasis on the indigenous rural economy.
The Kerry North/West Limerick deputy also pointed out that while the report was vehemently critical of Government policy, the Government majority on the committee did not oppose anything in the report.
Deputy Ferris concluded by saying:
“Family farming continues to be the fabric of rural Ireland, the fabric of rural communities, and so it is essential that family farming is safeguarded for future generations.
“Farming must not be solely about intensification and the continual enlargement of holdings at the detriment of the small family farm. It is important that the exploitation of our resources is for the overall and longer-term betterment of our communities.”
He hopes the report will be a useful tool in widening the debate within rural Ireland.
While the report contains an overview of the current state of the sector, it also has number of specific recommendations some of which are listed below. It also contains a survey on Farmers’ Outlook for the Future.