The counting of votes in the Irish Farmers Association’s presidential election began in Citywest Hotel, Dublin this morning.
There are three candidates contesting the top post – John Bryan, chairman of Kilkenny IFA, Derek Deane, deputy president, and Richard Kennedy, chairman of the national dairy committee. The result is expected this evening.
Voting in the election to replace outgoing president Pádraig Walshe closed earlier this month when all 947 branches in the 29 IFA county executives had cast their ballots.
There has been intense rivalry between the candidates who had to go through a of head-to-head debates at 17 centres around the country.
The three candidates engaged public relations experts to sell their message and all of them travelled thousands of miles to seek support from members and to get a high turnout.
Insiders believe Mr Bryan, a Kilkenny beef farmer, will be hard to beat, but supporters of the other candidates reject this.
“There are reports of high turnouts all over the country,” said the IFA’s national returning officer Ruaidhrí Deasy. “Fifteen candidates are contesting the positions of president, deputy president and regional vice-presidents.
“This is the largest field ever in the history of IFA elections and this has contributed to record turnouts in some counties.”
Mr Deasy said the result would be determined on the votes of the various branches, where a weighted voting system gives extra votes to those branches with high turnouts.
Sixty counters, drawn mainly from IFA staff and operating in 20 teams, will count all branch ballots.
Each three-person team will open the sealed white branch security envelopes one at a time. The counting of the branch’s ballots for president, deputy president and vice-president will proceed simultaneously until the result for each position is known.
As a high proportion of the 87,000 members are understood to have voted, the counting will take some time and it could be the evening before the name of the 13th president of the organisation is known.
Two of the 15 candidates are seeking the post of deputy president currently held by Derek Deane.
Seán O’Leary, from Mourneabbey, Co Cork, who has been Munster vice-president, is challenging Eddie Downey, the current chairman of Meath IFA and former national farm business chairman, for the post.
The IFA president does not receive a salary but the organisation pays all travelling and other expenses and also for the hire of a worker to do the farm work the president might otherwise be doing.
Live streaming and regular updates with commentary and analysis from the national count in Citywest will appear on the websites www.ifarm.ie and www.ifa.ie from 12.30pm.
Richard Kennedy
HIS LATE declaration as a candidate in the election could damage Richard Kennedy’s chances of becoming the new IFA president today. Mr Kennedy, a dairy farmer from Clarina, Co Limerick, announced his intention in August to run for the job.
He has the advantage, however, of having served as president of another farm organisation as he was elected president of Macra na Feirme, the farm youth organisation, in 1983.
Mr Kennedy, who runs a dairy and beef farm in partnership with his wife Helen and son James, has not worked off farm. He took up farming in 1970 on the family estate.
He has held a large number of positions in the organisation and he is the current chairman of the IFA’s national dairy committee.
The father of six children, Ann-Marie, James, Thomas, Elaine, Jane and Elizabeth, he served as branch chairman of the IFA, county PRO, county chairman and now the dairy committee.
Derek Deane
ONE OF the most difficult tasks for an IFA presidential candidate has been to move from being deputy president to the top job.
Derek Deane from Tombeagh, Hacketstown, Co Carlow, has been deputy president to Pádraig Walshe for the last four years.
He now runs a 150-acre cattle and sheep operation with his wife Mary, helped by his daughter Ruth and sons Tom and Philip.
Like his Kilkenny rival, he has also worked off farm as a communications technician before taking up full-time farming in 1978 with his father and brother.
Mr Deane has an impressive record in the IFA which he joined in 1985. He was also chairman of the national livestock committee and has served as its representative on the Teagasc and Bord Bia boards.
He was elected deputy president of the IFA in 2005 and has taken part in major negotiations in Brussels on the Fischler reforms and at home in the social partnership discussions.
John Bryan
SHOULD HE be elected later today, John Bryan, from Cappagh, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, will be the first ex-garda to become president of the IFA.
Regarded as the frontrunner in the race, Mr Bryan, who started farming in 1980, has been a lifelong member of the organisation. Now, with his wife Rena and their two children, Cathy and James, they farm 230 acres, 170 of which he owns and 60 of which he rents.
Mr Bryan has served as national livestock chairman and is current chairman of Kilkenny IFA.
He is best known for his work in exposing the lack of disease controls in Brazil which he visited on two occasions with an investigation team from the Irish Farmers Journal.
As a result of that investigation, Brazilian beef exports to the EU, which were heading towards 500,000 tonnes a year and were displacing Irish beef from the EU markets, were banned and have not fully recovered since.