A report recommending major structural changes in the Irish Farmers' Association will be presented later today to the national executive of the largest farm organisation.
The report has been complied for the 80,000-strong organisation by the former secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Mr Michael Dowling.
Mr Dowling, who is head of agricultural strategy at Allied Irish Bank, has proposed major structural changes in his report on organisation founded nearly 50 years ago.
He has proposed that a new electoral system be put in place, a suggestion which will be highly controversial. National officers are currently elected by branches rather than individuals.
Changing the voting system, which has served the IFA since its foundation, is bound to create problems within an organisation with over 950 branches, one in almost every rural parish in the State.
Sources within the organisation indicated Mr Dowling has proposed the scrapping of many of the sectoral committees which have become part of the organisation led by Mr John Dillon.
The dairy committee of IFA has been a powerful influence in the organisation until recent years, when other sectors, such as beef, sheep and cereals, began to produce top IFA officials from within their ranks.
The 65 staff at the organisation, which has headquarters in Bluebell, Dublin, and 12 regional offices, have received assurances from Mr Dowling that there are no implications for their employment in the organisational review.
However, the report is also thought to cover the best structures to be followed to achieve policy aims.
The report, which the organisation expects to have ratified by July 30th, has also recommended a 30 per cent reduction in the national council, which currently has 70 elected and a dozen or more ex-officio members.
The report will not directly deal with the organisation's ventures into the telecommunications industry or other commercial ventures.
However, the debate generated by the report will bring to the surface the most contentious move by the organisation in recent years: the offering of associate membership to non-farmers.
This matter was proposed at the last annual general meeting of the organisation in Limerick, but was so contentious that it was put on the back burner.
Although the IFA has a strong base and an annual turnover of €9.6 million, it has been looking at alternative ways of generating revenue, as farm production and farmer numbers are in decline.