Tag Archives: Clare IFA chairman

THE IFA should end all “Celtic Tiger” contracts for new senior officials, including president, in the national organisation, the newly-elected Clare chairman has said. Willie Hanrahan has proposed that the salary for the next IFA president should be in the region of the €82,258 paid to a Dáil deputy, plus legitimate expenses. The Doonbeg dairy farmer wants the salaries of all senior officers and the general secretary included in the IFA’s annual general accounts in a bid to introduce proper openness and transparency to the organisation, which was left reeling by the controversy surrounding huge payments to key personnel last year. Acknowledging that this controversy seriously undermined the trust of farmers in the organisation during “dark days” last year, he pointed out that “Celtic Tiger contracts” paid to some officials were not adjusted during austerity times. He stressed that the IFA should become a “bottom-up” farmer-led organisation in a new change of direction, as it had evolved into a “top-down …

THE impact of an accident, even a minor one, can have long-term repercussions for a farmer. One Clare man recalls how he had an accident with livestock that left him needing surgery but he couldn’t have the necessary operation until later in the year when work on the farm eased off. Andrew Dundas is a mixed farmer from Ardnacrusha. He is also Clare’s IFA chairman and looking back on an accident he had two years ago, even now he is not sure he could have prevented it. “With the best care in the world, something can happen. Whatever about taking chances, you can often get caught when you are using the best care in the world,” he says. Andrew understands better than most that, on farms, the dangers are everywhere. Figures show that from 2004 to 2013, tractors accounted for more than one fifth of all farm accidents, with 14% of accidents down to machinery. Drowning, or slurry gas, accounted …