IVAN YATES looks from his fifth floor office in Agriculture House in Kildare street across the city of Dublin and recalls the "all pervasive self drive, the insatiable appetite for politics" of the past 16 years as a TD.
"Now, I find that I have a greater appetite for my family, and a greater appetite for life and time with my family than I do for politics, and that has never happened before to me personally... I will be out of politics by 50, at least by 50 if not before, a good bit before," he says.
Now 37, he has been a public representative since he was 18 and a TD since he was 21. He is the youngest member of this Cabinet, looking after the oldest Department in the State. He watches Maire Geoghegan Quinn leave politics and the smell of burnout is in his nostrils.
"The truth is that people who go in younger go out younger.
He advised John Bruton publicly, just days before the Fianna Fail/Labour deal for government fell through in December 1994, that he should consider his position. Today, he says, John Bruton will lead the party for at least another decade. His standing has never been higher and he will be Taoiseach again, irrespective of whether this administration manages to regain power after the election.
Ivan Yates may want out of politics before he hits 50, but if the Taoiseach wants to reappoint him to the job in Agriculture, he will accept it.
But does he want it?
"I have worked intensely hard and really given my all in Agriculture for the last two and a bit years. I would not object to being in a different portfolio but if there was a choice between being in this portfolio and no portfolio, I would rather be in this portfolio."
He does not see himself as a "one dimensional politician" but he definitely would not like Justice. Eventually, he concedes he would like an economic portfolio. Finance, perhaps?
"Yes, Finance," though he has the "height of regard for Ruairi".
When he left school, he had three ambitions to be a politician, a farmer and a bookie. He has fulfilled all three.
"Why did Ben Dunne give you money - £5,000 - in 1992?"
"Why did he give me money? I don't know. I had never met him prior to the election. I met him once subsequent to the election. An election was on the money was offered to me for election expenses and I accepted it," he says.
He only ever met Ben Dunne once, in a hotel, for a drink and had never been asked to do anything.
"For some people, £5,900 is not a lot of money. To me it is quite a lot of money. But to some people it is frivolous. I don't think he felt he was buying a huge amount of favours but you'll have to ask him that," he says.
"If I have people in my constituency with a group water scheme and they say to me that an entire parish is not going to vote for me, that's pressure. That's a lot more pressure than Ben Dunne ever put on anybody," he says. Politicians' live in a world of pressure but must cope with it by never being compromised.
Ivan Yates wants to see the current rainbow alliance on a common platform seeking reelection together. It is in Fine Gael's and Labour's interests to remain on the same side of the House "in all circumstances". As for Democratic Left, he finds Proinsias De Rossa and Pat Rabbitte to be "loyal and professional colleagues and friends".
He accepts that Democratic Left does not "like" farmers but they have "modified their dislike to a point to let me get on with my job and let the Government do what they can to support the farming community".
As Irish Times/MRBI polls show, volatile beef prices lead to dangerous mood swings among big farmers as far as Fine Gael is concerned. Mr Yates is acutely aware of the monkey he is carrying on his back since beef prices are now on the floor.
Farm incomes may have hit more than £2 billion for the first time in 1995 - and did not drop overall last year - but, as Ivan Yates acknowledges, "beef has been the big dark cloud that has overshadowed the entire agriculture sector".
BEEF is more important to the Irish economy than agriculture is to the European economy.
"I am critically aware of the politics of the situation in that beef farmers' incomes are in direct proportion to the popularity of the Minister for Agriculture. I am under no illusion about that," he says. That makes critical his job of eliminating BSE - "mad cow disease".
"I have a very clear cut plan with BSE. Number one, to eradicate the disease; number two, to maintain prices; number three, to get another round of compensation before the middle of the year," he declares.
Mr Yates is an ambitious Minister. His vision extends way beyond the BSE skyline to a bold dream of "changing the entire culture of the beef industry" - at meat factory, dealer, producer ... at every level.
For example, the dairy industry has "a different philosophy" to the beef sector. It is totally disciplined from start to finish in relation to antibiotics, to quality, he says admiringly.
"Beef has been more tangling, dealing, pulling a stroke, short term thinking, right across the industry - meat factories especially - and dealers... the whole culture. It is a quick buck... Put it like this, while there have been some exceptional producers we need to have a national scheme of quality assurance."
The "malaise" in the beef industry is wider than any single individual and must be changed in favour of conforming to the discipline that characterises - the dairy sector.
The national beef safety assurance scheme, therefore, may ultimately serve as one of his fondest memories when, in years to come, he looks nostalgically through his political scrapbook.
This scheme, due to be launched by Easter, will involve computerisation of animal movements and a register of beef producers. A code of practice will apply across the spectrum, from farmers to dealers to meat factories, to marts, to live exporters, "from the stable to the table".
"It will be operational this time next year and that is ambitious, I have to tell you. This is monumentally and radically new."
Farmers whose voting patterns might be swayed by beef prices "have to realise" that, where the incidence of BSE has risen, subsequent marketing problems are not the fault of the Minister.
Mr Yates is satisfied that BSE is being eradicated but one animal in every 100,000 may be incubating the disease. So the infection, he believes, is not spreading any more but the question of residual infection incubating in the national herd remains. It takes three to eight years for an animal to develop the symptoms.
"I think we will plateau. We have expert statisticians and epidemiologists examining that question. I would say the rate of increase is going to abate and when it will reach a high point is not too far away. The infective agent is not being transmitted in the national herd any longer... The numbers (with BSE) will then drop off. How long that will take, I cannot predict with certainty," he says.
One thing is sure, however, it will not happen before the coming general election. Will he and his party bear the electoral rap?
Well, Mr Yates argues, he has delivered to farmers a total of £140 million in compensation and premiums from Europe. He is also working for 80 something pence in fixed price intervention - more than the "safety net" price of 74p apound.
Very large volumes of cattle will be slaughtered in the autumn and the present intervention terms are not satisfactory and do not give the type of protection that Irish beef producers need.
The review of the Russian ban on beef from eight counties takes place in May. If the ban is extended nationwide, the Irish beef industry will collapse.
"My strategy and policy at all times is to avoid that. Our problems are in direct proportion to the incidence of the disease. If the incidence abates, the problems will abate," he says.
He is disappointed that Libya, which, like Egypt, has closed its doors to live animals, has not yet sent a technical delegation as promised last year. In relation to these bans, the Minister says he never believed there would be an overnight reversal and there will be no "quick fix".
MEANWHILE, the oldest Government Department is facing its biggest shake up in generations". This restructuring of his Department will be announced in March. It arises from an internal review of the Department's operations and the changes involve revamping of top management.
"We are going to set up executive units and there is going to be a lot more transparency and accountability down the line in the Department. We are going to separate policy and functional arrangements. We are in consultation with the Department of Finance and the trade unions about this," says Mr Yates.
Did not the beef tribunal expose his Department as a hopelessly inept monitoring body?
His Department had been expected to defend and develop our largest single industry, worth 40 per cent of our net foreign earnings. "That was its principal mandate. At a time of exceptional crisis, when all our markets closed in 1990 and nine out of 10 animals had to go into intervention, the overriding priority of the Department was to secure a price and an outlet for that beef."
There is "no doubt" that the meat industry cut corners and these were not effectively policed".
"The Department committed no crimes. It was the meat industry committed the crimes. Let's be quite frank. It was not the Department that switched meat, that falsified weights, that systematically defrauded the European Union... I do not think it is fair to make the Department the whipping boy for the misdeeds of people in the beef industry," he maintains.
But lessons were learned, and it is clear it is not wise for a Department to get too close to any industry, in a generic sense. Nowadays, there is a "total determination" that malpractice will not be reheated.
With beef prices in a state of chassis and milk prices threatening to fall, is it not high time the Minister also set about introducing diversification in agriculture?
Because Irish agriculture is "grass based", farmers are going to continue producing milk and meat and that is just not going to change. So, he says, rather than turning from milk and meat production the sector must concentrate on "added value products" and have a lesser dependency on export to third country markets.
It is not about giving up on milk and meat, but more about coming up with new ideas of processing and preparing the existing basic ingredients to appeal to "real consumer markets". Farmers must also change breeding practices and produce leaner beet, slaughtering steers at lighter weights.
Prior to BSE, Ireland sold one third of its beef to Britain one third to mainland Europe and the rest to third countries. But, because of the disease, European consumers have "gone native" and want to buy local beef and this has greatly set back Ireland's plans.
"But if you ask me what are the big changes that will happen in Irish agriculture in the next few years, I would say that future income increases will not come from more money from Brussels, will not come from price increases as agricultural trade becomes more liberalised."
Future income gains will come from greater efficiency and cheaper production. By that he means Irish farmers producing meat and milk, off grass, cheaper than anyone else in the world.
A tall order, since net subsidies from Brussels to Irish farming last year amounted to £1.3 billion. Total agricultural income was £2.1 billion. Mr Yates presides over a completely dependent industry.
"Mmmmm. That arises out of three decades of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is the basis on which we joined Europe," he says.
These are the pillars on which the EU is built. The supports cannot be pulled away. If it is the case that European prices are going to converge towards world prices - and go down - Mr Yates will be saying that Ireland must get "full compensation".
"It is a political objective of Europe to maximise the number of farm families. We have eight million farmers in Europe and we simply cannot denude our rural population. There is inevitably going to be a reduction but, without these supports, that is going to be accelerated. The supports have to stay to maintain the social and political objective of maximising the number of farm families."
The Minister profiles the future as he sees it: Irish farmers are leaving the land at a rate of 1,000 a year. The sector has a very high age profile. Average farm sizes are increasing and more farmers have a "no farm income" through a spouse or partner working or through a part time job.
At the end of the day, he says, there will be about 60,000 to 50,000 full time Irish farmers who can compete with the best and a further 80,000 farmers who can only survive with social supports or off farming incomes.
FORESTRY is the other side of his ministry that is often ignored. Mr Yates is advocate of trees. He has already launched a 30 year development strategy for the sector involving a £3 billion investment to create "critical mass".
"I want to get an extra million acres of marginal land planted. I want to double the amount of afforestation in the country and I want to get it up to something around 18 per cent. I believe it will create 11,000 jobs downstream... Trees are totally environmentally friendly."
Britain is only 25 per cent self sufficient in softwood. There is a "real export market out there" for Ireland.
"I can see a day," he declares, "when Irish timber exports will be worth more than the beef industry is worth now. That's £1.7 billion - that's quite a lot. I can see it by the year 2020 - if I live that long," he says.
And, of course, there are grants to be availed of. Forestry will give a rate of return commensurate with most other forms of farming but the problem for Ivan Yates is that it will take too long for him to be vindicated on this issue.
In the overall European context, though, is not the role of Irish Minister for Agriculture an ineffective one? Is not all policy dictated by Brussels?
He admits that "if the politics was to change" in terms of CAP reform and a new round of GATT, Ireland would find it "very difficult to resist". Therefore, a Minister for Agriculture has to be particularly "well connected" in Europe and the Commission "to weather the storms that lie ahead".