Sir, – I write as the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), one of the components of the “unholy alliance of farm bodies and industry” identified by Sadhbh O’Neill that “is lobbying to shore up the entire fantasy” that is Ireland’s efforts to retain our nitrates derogation (“If the unholy alliance of farm bodies and industry is successful in its lobbying, the price will be our rivers and lakes”, Climate Crisis, September 26th).
The preamble that attempts to link the case for retaining Ireland’s nitrates derogation with the matters pertaining to the beef tribunal is plainly intended to introduce the current situation as some kind of sequel. The ICMSA had no involvement with the tribunal, nor for that matter did farmers in general. Using the beef tribunal as a scene-setter just gives Ms O’Neill her chance to offer readers her preferred lenses through which they should view Irish farming and wider agri sector. It’s perfectly plain what she’s trying to say: the situation might change, but the intention to deceive and act corruptly remain the same. This is not reportage or analysis; this is common abuse and a slur.
Farmers having been handed their “black hat”, Ms O’Neill moves on to the revelation that “relationships between industry, farm bodies, State agencies, political parties and academic expertise have been painstakingly mapped by investigative outfit DeSmog and a comprehensive ‘influence map’ has been published”.
I’ll happily admit that “influence map” is a new one on me. In the context in which Ms O’Neill uses it, it seems to refer to an overlap that has a farmer (say, myself) who is a member of the ICMSA, sitting on a State or other board, which I do in my capacity as president of the ICMSA. This, we are to understand, is a kind of “tentacles of the octopus”, whereby unscrupulous farm leaders (me again, I suppose) are placed in position in which they can operate with others as a kind of shady cabal coordinating and influencing State policy toward retention of Ireland’s nitrates derogation and the resultant destruction of our rivers and waterways. All achieved through arm-twisting duly elected politicians to enrich our farmer members, with only a doughty group of incorruptible and clear-eyed visionaries (Ms O’Neill and her associates) standing in our way.
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But where’s the evidence? The dairy farmers that the ICMSA represents have seen their income fall by 69 per cent in just the last year. That’s not a misprint: according to the Teagasc National Farm Survey published in August, dairy farm incomes fell by 69 per cent in 2023.
Based on the Teagasc figures published, we calculated that an average Irish dairy farmer working a normal 60-hour week was coming out with less than the minimum wage before meeting any debt repayments.
The ICMSA doesn’t want to rubbish the idea of an “influence map”; it’s a free country and Sadhbh O’Neill and DeSmog are perfectly entitled to draw any conclusions they want. What everyone else will understand as an attempt by State bodies and agri-food concerns to have some input from the farmers on whose work and produce everything else rests, she chooses to understand as “an unholy alliance” formed to destroy our rivers and lakes. But what about the fact that farmers operating under derogation are the most heavily regulated in the State? Or that we have numerous instances of derogation farms right besides pristine waterways? The ICMSA thinks that it is possible and logical to retain our derogation and improve water quality; there’s a lead-in time but measures are already in place.
As a matter of record in which we take pride, the ICMSA has never – in its near 75 years of existence – made a donation to a political party or ever endorsed one. While Sadhbh O’Neill is contemplating that, can we suggest another “influence map” that we think might be much more revealing about “who has come from where” and overlapping membership. Would DeSmog be interested in mapping out the fascinating – and conspicuously unremarked upon – overlap between environmental NGOs, “activists”, media figures and commentators, commercial environmental consultancies, appointment to one or more of the dizzying array of State-supported quangos and eventual candidacy for political parties? – Yours, etc,
DENIS DRENNAN,
President,
ICMSA,
Limerick.