MATT Dempsey, the chair of the Food Vision Tillage Group and former editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal, is contesting the Seanad election, as he aims to win one of the seats on the Agricultural panel.
Mr Dempsey was chair of Food Vision Tillage Group, which presented a report to Government giving recommendations on the expansion of the tillage sector in Ireland.
He has been nominated by the Royal Dublin Society to contest for one of 11 Seanad seats on the Agricultural panel.
‘Seanad Eireann is an important part of our legislative framework. It provides opportunities to speak out on critical issues and have an input into laws and policies that affect people’s lives. These issues include rural as well as urban housing, the threats to foreign direct investment in a rapidly changing world and a loss of competitiveness if we don’t keep pace with scientific and technological developments,’ said Mr Dempsey.
‘We must support our indigenous enterprise sectors and, of these, farming and food production is by far our biggest sector. It underpins massive exports and tens of thousands of jobs and widely distributed economic activity right across the country.
‘The Seanad must also speak out on the disastrous Mercosur trade deal and the real damage this could wreak on Irish farming and our wider economy.’
Mr Dempsey is a cattle and tillage farmer from Celbridge in Kildare. He was editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal years, and other rules he held included chairman of the Agricultural Trust, chairman of the Irish National Stud, and chairman and President of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).
The Agricultural panel is one of five vocational panels.
All elected members of county councils, city corporations, Dáil Éireann and outgoing members of Seanad Éireann can vote for the Agricultural panel, one of five vocational panels in the Seanad.
Voting is by way of postal ballot with ballot papers issued on January 15th and the ballot closing on 30th January at 11 am for the vocational panel.
