THE chairperson of West Cork ICMSA, DJ Keohane, has said a 69% collapse in dairy farm incomes in the last year is a shame on Government.
Mr Keohane was speaking in the wake of the recently released Teagasc National Farm Survey that showed dairy and tillage farms in particular experienced steep reductions in farm income in 2023.
The ICMSA said the figures were a damning reflection on Government. ‘Try and imagine any other occupation in Ireland working a 60-hour week where a Government agency produces figures showing a fall income in just a single calendar year of almost 70%?’ said Mr Keohane.
‘Try and imagine a situation in, for instance, the public sector where any group of workers were asked to just shrug and accept a fall in income of even 7% – still less 70%.
'Imagine the response and imagine the Government falling over itself to apologise and come forward with reasons explaining away the fall in income,’ he added.
Mr Keohane argued that Irish farmers are arguably the best in the world yet are losing their livelihoods while the Government just ‘shrugs and moves on preparing the next round of “green” regulations. It’s actually impossible to exaggerate the shambles that the Government has made of what was until recently Irish Agri’s flagship sector
– the one area in which Ireland was deemed ‘world-beating’ and the economic engine of rural Ireland,’ Mr Keohane concluded.
